Broken Souls
by UncrowdedKingOfAsh
Summary: A single soul survives the destruction of his own reality. He is taken by a being who sees through him and is forced to change to save their home. Along the way, friend, foe, and bystander stand between him and betterment. Because in the end, can even the worst person redeem themselves? Can he become the hero he once was, or will he destroy everything he loves all over again?
1. A Second Try

Suddenly, he was reformed.

His bright red soul gleamed in the darkness, shining it's crimson light on wherever he was. He tried to reach for his chest, to see if he was still alive, but he couldn't move his body. Probably because he didn't have one.

**_Hello?_**

A voice suddenly resounded in his head, masking itself with every voice he remembered. A soft, motherly voice that brought him the smell of smoke and pie. A jovial voice that was filled to the brim with confidence in everything around it. A groaning voice that brought him bad laughs and harsh truths.

All those voices resounded in his soul, and he did the closest thing to crying, despite lacking any tear ducts.

**Are we... Connected?**

The voice went on, making the soul quiver violently as the pain and sadness continued to pour into him.

**Hmm... I guess we are.**

The cold reply shocked him. He almost thought of calling him a monster, but he wasn't a hypocrite.

**Alright, let us begin.**

His soul began to shine brighter and brighter, and soon enough it became like a red star, consuming the darkness in light. Then, feeling began flowing back into his, well, everything. First his chest, then his arms, and so on until he has what was apparently a body. It was outlined in red, just like the cursed thing that was glowing in his chest, right where his heart is.

It took the Angel a second to get all the feeling back into him, but as soon as he did, the voice returned.

**Ah... You seem a bit sadder than you were before your little... genocide.**

His eyes flashed red, and he made a fist at his side but said nothing. The voiced seemed to find it amusing, as it laughed, coldly and deeply, in a way that the other voices were gone, and a new, deep one replaced it.

**Well, at least you learned to hold your tongue_, murderer._**

The red form flinched at the last word. He'd been called that by so many people that he almost thought the voice mimic was back again when the voice said it.

**I wish there was another way, but I guess you really are the Angel.**

"Yeah." He said for the first time. "I've made the caverns go empty twice now." He wished he hadn't. He wished he could've stayed with his new family. He wished he could've ignored Flowey's saying, that murder is how the world is, and no one can escape that system. Asriel had told him different, that that worldview was terrible and he was glad it was gone. But he was too determined, and nothing could stop his curiosity. And the curiosity didn't kill just the cat, it killed everything.

**Indeed. You need to save them like you did the first time. No more satisfying your curiosity.**

"H-how did you-" His voice was cut off in a second.

**Existing between dimensions helps you learn a thing or two about things no one should know.**

He felt the hair on his arms stand up on end. He was scared, less than he should've but scared nonetheless. He gulped and steadied himself. "So, you want me to go back and do it right?"

**I want you to save _everyone_ this time, Angel.**

"Don't call me Angel. My name is-"

A stab of pain shot through his skull as he grabbed it and gritted his teeth to keep from screaming. All his pain shone through this body, and he could fell his soul deteriorating with every second. His vision was filled with spots as he ended up screaming and pleading in agony.

**Don't you _dare_ order me around! I'm only doing this out of necessity. You are their only hope, the only shot to achieve their dreams. So, while I do my job, you must regain control of yourself.**

"What do you-" Suddenly, the creature he was talking to appeared behind him and ripped out his soul from his makeshift body. The pain was incomprehensible, but it was slowly kicking in.

**Do you think a being scattered across time and space can't hear the voices in your head? I know all, see all, and hear all. I am the closest thing you have to a god. Now, go and save your soul...**

The pain was steadily increasing, causing his vision to turn into a burning white. He could barely think over that and his screams. His red-outlined form began to fall away, leaving his soul in the clutches of the monster he couldn't see.

**Now, remember this. In this world, I can't let you chose. Your soul is corrupted and hellbent on destroying everything as you did before. So, your job is to reclaim the piece of your soul and be rehabilitated into someone who can save everyone once more. **

**Now...**

**Your**

**Name**

**Is...**

Author's Note:

**Man, I forgot I used to actually say Author's Note at the end of these. Anyway, I personally always liked this chapter, as it is the only first chapter to any story I've written that actually feels like the start of a new journey. Vague pretenses, references to previous events, and a whole lot of foreshadowing. It brings a tear to my eye.**

**In any case, the first chapter has been revised, with many more on the way! Leave reviews if you like or dislike what I do! Later**


	2. Falling again

"Kris!"

A teenager opened his eyes and turned in his bed towards the speaker. His vision was streaked by tears as he recognized the motherly figure in front of him. The snowy fur, the purple outfit, the smell of animal shampoo. He struggled to get up, as his body seemed to reject him completely. After some silence, Toriel continued.

"You've got to wake up! At this rate, we'll be late for school!" As "Kris" struggled to find words his body would let him say, Toriel gave up.

"Meet me outside when you're ready, my child." She opened the curtains, and ran out, leaving "Kris'' to silently cry, as his heart was broken with various emotions. Though, there was a small smile on his face as he turned over Toriel's words in his head.

"My child..." He said with a small, fragile voice as he forced himself out of bed. He took in the room slowly. His side of the room was empty except for a cage and a wagon. There were stains of a substance he recognized but forced it out of his mind. He quickly turned and looked at the other side. It was well decorated, with glow in the dark stars all over the wall and several trophies hanging over the striped bed. He saw a diploma on the wall, and the name on it made his blood run cold.

Asriel Dreemurr. Memories tinged with varying degrees of sadness all flashed in "Kris'" head. He let out a shaky breath and forced himself to not freak out.

After he recollected himself, "Kris" walked out and was hit right in the chest with the nostalgia the house gave off. Everything looked almost the same, except with a lack of warm fireplaces. Even the wallpaper was almost the exact same. He passed by the floral scent of the trash can and decided to go through his pockets. He pulled out a phone, and for a second remembered when he was back in the Ruins, the musical humming of souls lulling him with calm and intrigue. He caught himself smiling in the phone's reflection of him, then scowled and ran outside, skipping breakfast.

Toriel was waiting in the car, and he quickly hopped in the front seat and let the vehicle's vibrations relax him. The giant goat lady next to him started driving, and then remembered something.

"Kris, did I tell you that Asriel's coming for a visit in a week?" She looked at him and saw him stiffen up in what she thought was surprise. She giggled as she went into town.

"I guess I did not. How do you think your brother's going to feel when he comes back home after all the excitement of university? Will he be happy with this little town?" She looked back at Kris once more, only to see him looking out the window, with a look of pained nostalgia on his face. He was looking at all the neighbors waving at them, entranced.

"Kris, are you even paying attention?"

"I am, Mom." Kris' reaction was instantaneous, and he hated how naturally he was talking to Toriel. He'd killed her once, and now he was acting like some kid who never deserved to be doubted once in his life. He wanted to punch himself in the stomach. Only, his body wouldn't let him do that either. He sighed, then mumbled, "Sorry." Toriel looked at him once more, considering commenting on this, then decided against it. He already seemed strangely hurt as it was. No used beating a dead horse.

While Kris was staring blankly at the town, they arrived at school where Toriel walked with Kris, hand in hand, and lead him into school. She quickly hugged him, and they both went their separate ways, with Kris passing several lockers as he entered the classroom with a slam of the door.

"K-Kris," the nerdy yellow lizard stammered, shocked at the mop-haired human's sudden appearance. "We thought you weren't coming. A-anyways, go and find yourself a partner for the project." He sighed and looked at them all from underneath his mop of unruly hair. He decided to ask all the people he recognized.

"Hey, Temmie. Wanna be partners?" He said to the pale cat-dog thing. It looked up at him and started speaking. Or something close to that.

"KRISPS! Temmie very sorry, but I already has partner." They pulled out a boiled egg and set it down next to itself. Only two minutes since he went to school, and he was already been rejected for an egg. He walked over to Monster Kid and asked to be partners.

"Oh, sorry Kris! Me and Snowy are already partners! I should've waited for you longer, since he just keeps turning to me and saying, 'Howdy, Partn'r!" Monster Kid said, then went back to working on whatever the project was. That left the giant goth cat, which he was NOT messing with, the snake that seemed to be partners with the cat, and the reindeer that seemed like the best person in the classroom. So, he went over to her, and she started the conversation.

"Oh, Kris! Do you need to borrow a pencil? The one with stripes, or lights?" She said in a sweet voice. Kris corrected her and asked her if they could partner up.

"Uh, I'm already partners with Berdly." Kris looked back and saw the Blue Jay look at him condescendingly.

"But, we could make a group of three. Alphys!" She called the teacher who was on her phone. Berdly, being the absolute prick that he is, started to argue with Noelle. "Kris" was mystified about how much he knew about these complete strangers.

"No! Abort! I did not agree to this!" Berdly squawked at Noelle. She flinched at his sudden shouting.

"Yes, Noelle?" Alphys responded, apparently tuning out all of Berdly's bullshit. Noelle, now conflicted with both of her friends' wants, could barely make a sound.

"Well... I was wondering if we could..." She squeaked out almost inaudibly.

"Noelle, can you please speak up-" Alphys started, but was cut off by another violent slamming of the door. Kris jumped at the noise and turned to the door. Standing in the doorframe was a giant of a monster, taller than almost everyone in the room by a large margin. She had purple, scaly skin and a dark mane of hair. She seemed to like it in front of her eyes, as did Kris' body, for equally strange reasons. She wore the typical Hot Topic look; Ripped jeans, baggy shirt, the purple jacket just because she can; You know the drill. For a second, there was a tense silence; Kris squirmed. Long silences would unnerve him for a while.

"... Am I late?" She said in her smooth, intimidating voice.

"N-no!" Alphys replied cowardly, waving her clawed hands in front of her as if to ward off the idea itself. "W-we were just choosing partners, a-and... You're with Kris!"

Kris immediately went into a tirade of silent curses at his cowardly teacher for shoving him under the bus so fast. He sighed, and let Alphys continue her sniveling at Susie.

"Anyway, I-I'll get the chalk and write the assignment." Alphys began searching in her desk drawers for it and found absolutely nothing. She peaked up from the back of her desk at all of us. "A-alright, very funny guys, now who took the chalk?" Absolute silence from everyone and the yellow lizard's eyes shifted from student to student, searching for a sign.

"O-ok, if you're gonna be like this... I-if no one owns up, e-everyone gets in trouble." Somehow, even more, silence emanated within the tiny classroom.

"Anyone? P-please?" She begged, and Kris' chest twisted with pity. Before he could try and help his teacher, the Reindeer next to him spoke up.

"Uhh, Miss Alphys? There's probably more chalk in the supply closet. If you want, Susie and I-" Kris raised an eyebrow, although no one could tell underneath his long hair. He knew the way she was looking at Susie. It was like a deer caught in headlights-

Kris facepalmed at his own pun, just as Alphys went on her stammering speech.

"Y-Yes, great idea Noelle! Susie, since you were late, can you go get the chalk for me?" The giant purple dinosaur sighed, walked out the door, and shut it all while her, "Whatever," hung in the room.

Alphys then turned her pleading gaze onto Kris, and he already knew what she was going to say.

"I'll keep an eye on her, so don't worry Alphys." His lips turned up a bit before he walked after his partner. No one, not even Alphys, noticed how he didn't call her 'Miss'.

After Kris closed the door, he turned and saw his partner chomp on some chalk. He immediately tensed up when he saw the look of surprise on her face when she turned to look at him. She quickly got control of herself and looked back at him with her intimidating aura at maximum.

"Whoa, Kris. Didn't you see you there." She said, voice as smooth as...chalk dust. He couldn't pry his eyes off the dust on her face, and he saw flashes of monster dust spraying everywhere. He couldn't open his mouth.

"...hey. You didn't happen to see anything, did you?" No words could form. It was as if he were stuck between worlds, with no way out. He could just dumbly open his mouth in the sorriest attempt of speaking in the world.

"Hmmm... You can't even say?" Kris absentmindedly glanced up and saw her eyes. They were full of something he recognized. A will to do harm.

"Kris..." The way she said his name terrified him, and he slowly walked backward away from her. She just stalked over to him, enjoying his fear. Eventually, he walked into some lockers, and then Susie put her hand on his shoulder. His legs were shaking, while he gritted his teeth. He hated this feeling, of pure fear overcoming him. He could fight back against her. He could break her arm into dust. He could-

"Let me tell you a secret." He snapped out of his contemplation upon hearing those words. He looked down at his feet, hating himself to resorting to that part of him the second he was in danger. So, he felt he deserved being shoved into the lockers, as Susie did. The metallic clang echoed out into the halls, and Kris knew that someone in the class had heard it. She held him up against the locker, and put her face right near his.

"Quiet people piss me off." Susie smiled, her white fangs glistening like they were itching to be covered in some human blood. He looked at the opaque window of his classroom, hoping for someone to come and help him, and saw a bunch of blobs nodding. Damn. Guess the murderer was on his own.

Suddenly, some notes rang out in Susie's soul. A foreboding tone, of the potential danger, that you'd have to escape from by the skin of your teeth. Perfect.

"You think that because you don't say anything, I don't know EXACTLY what your thinking?" She said calmly, which made it somehow more creepy than if she shouted. "'It's OVER! I caught Susie eating all the chalk!'" She mocked him in a voice that was nowhere near how he actually sounded.

"'This was her LAST chance! Now she'll FINALLY be expelled!'" She continued, and tension spread through Kris' chest. His legs started to shake, which looked hilarious since he was suspended in the air.

She laughed dryly and looked right at him.

"Don't act surprised, Kris. We both know it's true." He would've doubted it before she shoved him into the lockers, but now his taunt jaw was the only reason he couldn't completely agree with her. "Everyone knows it." She continued. "Everyone wants it."

"So, good job Kris. You got me. It's over now. But, if I know you're gonna end it, might as well go out with a bang!" She barked out a laughed that roared in his chest.

"So, tell me, Kris. How do you feel..." She bared her white fangs, and for the first time, he saw her sickly yellow eyes. They sent chills down his spine.

"About losing your face." She began slowly lifting him closer towards her face, her mouth widening to take a sickening bite out of him. Kris realized something in that tense, horrifying moment. He'd rather live with his sins than die without trying to repent for them. His anger built up, and he knew what he was going to do. He was brought right to her face, and could smell the chalk in her breath. He went for the pencil in his pocket-

And was dropped like a sack of potatoes onto the ground. Pain snaked it's way up to his back as Susie turned around.

"You know what? I'd rather keep you alive to do the project. Alone. So, how about doing the whole project _yourself? _Pretty good deal, right?"

He was about to make his snappy reply, but his voice didn't work fast enough.

"Don't bother answering, freak. If you haven't already guessed..."

_**Your choices don't matter.**_

That deep, unfeeling voice overlapped Susie's own words. It shocked Kris' memory, and he remembered why he was there. To regain his soul. And here he was, about to stab some edgy teenager in the neck because he was too scared and weak to even attempt to defend himself. Well, he had a long way to go.

"C'mon, let's go get the chalk, go back to class and act like nothing happened. Got it, _human?_" Susie said venomously, then walked off towards the closet. Kris forced himself back up and followed her. But, since it's Susie, she had to continue insulting him.

"Wow, I've never seen you walk so far without your mother holding your hand. Looks like the fake goat doesn't need any help now." Kris struggled to open his mouth to say something, _anything,_ to defend himself. So, of course, he just took the insults as the walked to the back of the school. After about two minutes of random insults and walking, they made their way to a creepy looking black door.

"Well, it looks like our adventure is over now." She said sarcastically. "May as well get it over with. Let's go in."

As soon as she finished her sentence, the door suddenly opened and the hall was filled with darkness that oozed from the closet. It was... unnerving, and brought back some bad, lonely memories for Kris, who unconsciously stepped away. Susie, who was shaking a bit, turned to him, and returned to mocking him.

"What are you, scared? C'mon, it's just a dark closet." She turned towards it just as it let out a whisp of a ghostly moan came out.

"A-alright, let's both go in if you're so scared." Kris looked at her suspiciously but said nothing as they walked in. The hallway looked positively illuminate compared to this inky blackness that clawed its ways into their eyes. Calling it darkness wasn't doing it justice. It was more like an absence of everything, where whatever it touched simply stopped existing. Kris felt like he would fade in any second if he didn't leave immediately.

"Ok, we need a light," Susie said, then the scraping sound of wood against scales echoed, with an angry grunt from Kris' reptilian partner.

"Nothing, huh?" Kris said matter-of-factly, to which Susie turned to him.

"_Nooo, I definitely found the switch, I just like being basically blind!_" She shouted at him, which didn't bother him.

"Alright, Barney, let's just check the rest of the walls for a switch," Kris said quickly before walking off.

"Hey!" She shouted at him before chasing him. Looking back, Kris saw her and immediately booked it. They ran in a straight line, not bumping into anything. Kris noticed after he almost couldn't see the door anymore.

"Hold on! Where are the walls?" He said, trying to make her stop going after him. Susie considered, making her stop bearing down on him. She turned and saw how far their little outburst had taken them, and shivered.

"Alright, enough hard work. Alphys can search the creepy closet on her own. Let's go." Susie said, then walked to the door. Kris, glad she forgot his insult so quickly, gladly followed to go back to class. Then an echo resounded within the room, and the little bit of light from the door was gone, leaving them locked in. Susie rushed to the door, the desperate scrapping of her claws on the space the door was echoed, as Kris ran to her.

"The door's gone. HOW THE HELL IS THE DOOR GONE?!" She screamed at the door as she began banging on it, trying to break it down. After three seconds of the banging, the floor began to shake.

"W-What the-" Was all Susie could say before the floor gave out and they both began to fall.

"GOD DAMN IT SUSIE!" Was the only thing that could be heard as all trace of them being there faded and became one with darkness.

**Author's note:**

**Now, this is a chapter! I have to be honest, I love the earlier parts of this story. It's the same with most other series- I always just prefer the first.**

**Anyway, second verse same as the first, reviews wanted so I can get better. Also revised. Thanks for reading, and see you next time.**


	3. Shadows and Legends

Kris slowly regained consciousness. He laying on cold, rough stone, in a place with barely any light. As he got up, some stolen glances told him he was on some cliffs that seem to be floating in a void of darkness. It probably wasn't, but he couldn't know that. He stretched out his sore body, which was immune to fall damage. Then, he noticed what he was wearing. Armor.

He tried doing more stretches, to see how well-fitting the armor was. It stretched and bent to his every whim. It was a perfect item, and once he knew he was going to need quickly. He sighed, then realized something. His name. He put a hand to his head as he sorted himself out. Why didn't he remember his name? He's not Kris, he's... someone else. Then he remembered what had happened before he woke up.

"That petty, self-important..." Kris went on a mini-rant using every foul oath and curse he knew before he realized something.

"Where's Susie?" He looked around, but since it had been more than ten seconds and he hadn't been insulted, he guessed she wasn't there. He groaned, and then went off to find that gigantic reptile for whatever reason. He walked around in the dark, the sound of his steps echoing in the darkness. The absence of monster souls made this place feel mostly quiet, giving him two clues right of the bat.

One, there was barely anyone else in these caverns, and two, no boss monsters either. So, he went on and followed the stone paths, with no idea where he was going. He saw some weird things that reminded him of an Amalgamite, just swaying back and forth every time he crossed their path. Then, he noticed some shadows right outside of his peripheral vision. He couldn't turn fast enough to catch the shadowy prick following him, but he trusted his ability to...

He slowly inhaled and exhaled. He focused all his will and told himself one thing. He wouldn't kill anything. Not unless necessary. He didn't believe he could hold himself to that. But he had learned somethings in his last adventure. Mainly that when you think you lack something, all you can do is fake it till you make it.

He took the first step. Figuratively, and ran with it, searching for his purple lizard 'friend'. He was so focused on running, he only barely noticed the bullet running straight for him. He almost instantly ducked and rolled under it, stopping at a crouch. He looked at the direction of the bullets, but there were only a bunch of swinging white things that reminded him of the Amalgamates. He saw there were two more of them, and shrugged. Not like he couldn't dodge them again. So, this time he watched them as he walked past them. Then his body was surrounded with red light as the bullets flew through the air. He snickered as he easily walked through the gaps between the triple shot bullets. Almost as easy as stomping on a flower.

He then spotted something... familiar. He barely registered the unnatural light before he imposed himself on the world. Then he stopped as he looked at the original file.

**Kris**

'My body has a save file.' That thought surprised and confused him. He'd thought this body was something the guy had made for him in this world, along with his body's history. So, what was up? Is he... possessing some random human right now? The very thought sent an unsettling feeling throughout his-

The body he inhabited. He shook those thoughts out of his head and went on to save his file.

**The Angel**

**The Cliffs - Eye Puzzle**

Well, at least he got the cliff part right, but where was the eye puzzle-

He then looked to his right and facepalmed.

_Goddammit, why am so I blind?_ He chided himself as he looked at the puzzle. It had three gigantic, creepy eyes painted right next to each other. There were dark spots underneath them, and buttons as well. He glanced at the inscription to the side and shook his head.

In the Darklands, only eyes blinded by darkness can see.

Fine. Metaphors. He could live with those. He quickly solved the puzzle, and a glass path appeared near a gap he hadn't even noticed before now. He walked over the glass and stared at the bottom. There was an immense amount of nothing underneath him, and if he hadn't already survived three gigantic falls, he would've developed an extreme fear of heights right then and there. But this wasn't his first rodeo, and he calmly walked on, slid down a nearby waterfall, and saw a dark figure run away from him.

Suddenly, a sadistic urge overtook him, and a deadly smile enveloped his face. He watched the silhouette run from dust pile to dust pile, and each time, he scattered the pile into the wind. He couldn't stop himself. He wasn't in control. He kept the act until the last pile, where there was nowhere else to run. His grin grew impossibly wide as he swiped the pile-

And was met with a purple-pink dinosaur with a shocked expression plastered on her face.

He then realized what he was doing, and his grin fell away.

"Hey. You seemed to have turned a different tint from the last time I saw you." Kris jostled lightly. Her shocked expression turned to one of mild annoyance.

"Well, you should look in a mirror. What, need an instrument for your Blue Man Group tryouts?" She insulted him, causing him to look at his exposed arms.

"They seem more like turquoise than blue to me," Kris stated, staring at his new colored skin. Well, at least he didn't turn purple. That... would've been terrible.

"Whatever. Oh, and insult me again, and I'll clock you in the face." Susie states before turning and jogging away, mumbling about getting home faster. Kris screwed up his face at Susie and mouthed _'clocked?'_ at her back before reluctantly following her.

Selah met up with Susie at an extremely tall pillar in the middle of nowhere. He was about to say something to her when she pointed up and asked, "Why's that guy waving at us?" Kris looked up and-

Two spades came flying from the silhouette right at the two of them, forcing them to dodge and immediately run to the right. The stranger sent a light shower of deadly magical objects down there way, with a slight chance of bodily harm. Kris, not used to exerting himself in his new body, got some cuts as he made his way through. His heart pounding, he ran as hard as his legs could handle, and he eventually made it to a waterfall, where Susie slid down, waving at him to follow. Lacking any other options at that point, he followed her.

The stranger didn't skip a beat, as the painful forecast changed from magical showers to a full-on storm of spades. Kris had to swim on a goddamn waterfall to not get turned into a suit-based porcupine. On his way down the fall, the spades stopped following him, and he looked down at the particularly close patch of darkness beneath him and braced for another painful fall.

"Argh, my ass," Kris swore lightly as he used his arms to force himself upright. He rubbed his head as he walked forward. Then he saw something beautiful.

It was a kingdom where blues and purples shone to show you what darkness was; A combination of colors. The houses curved as if they were clawing at each other for room. But the most dazzling part was the pillar of darkness flowing upwards like a backward waterfall. A compelling force within him wanted to do something with all this beauty in front of him... He wanted a picture. So, he took out his phone, turned it on-

And an unnerving noise emanated from his phone. Huh. He probably should've tried calling someone earlier, but he knew it wouldn't work anyway.

Then, whatever was left of the residents' souls began to resonate within him. Tones of myth and curiosity began to fill his soul, and for the first time, he felt... happy and excited to be there. Here he was, with a body, and a second chance to save himself and everything he loved. He was glad to be there. A ghost of a smile was planted on his face, and he strolled down towards the town and saw how the buildings towered above him. He sighed and shook his head playfully as he entered the center of the town. And a white light caught his eyes, and he was drawn to it. He reached for the file and imposed his new knowledge and feelings onto the world.

**The Angel**

**Empty Town - Town Square**

He saved and went on into the castle gates before him. There, he found Susie looking around, and trying to hide her relief from seeing him again.

"O-oh! Kris, you're alive! I'm glad... because otherwise, I'd have no idea what to say when I get back." She put on her facáde once more and became the tough bully again.

"Nice to see you aren't dead, either." Kris' smile, surprisingly, grew at the sight of Susie. He felt like he was getting the hang of making friends again.

Then, a robed figure appeared before them, and when they spoke, an echoing was heard that made their voice unrecognizable.

"Ah... You two are finally here. I've been waiting for you for... for a long time. Now, it is time for you to know your destiny. Do you wish to hear?"

"Yes."

"No."

Kris and Susie looked at each other, and their good moment was over.

"Why do you wanna hear some stupid destiny shit, Kris? We gotta get home."

"Because what's the worse that could happen? We get to skip first period?" Kris knew exactly what to say to get Susie on board, and she let the robed figure (The echoing effect made it hard to tell their gender) go on with their prophecy.

"Thank you. Now, I will begin."

_There once was a legend whispered among shadows_

_It was a legend of **HOPES**_

_It was a legend of **DREAMS**_

_It was a legend of **LIGHT**_

_It was a legend of **DARK**_

_This is the legend of **DELTARUNE**_

_For millennia, **LIGHT **and **DARK **have lived in peace_

_Bringing balance to the world_

_But if this harmony were to shatter..._

_A terrible calamity will occur_

_The sky will run black with terror_

_And the land will crack with fear_

_And, her heart pounding...__The earth will draw her final breath_

_Only then, when hope has run out...__The chosen three will appear_

_A Human -To seal the fountains that will cause the shift_

_A Monster -To defend the human from darkness_

_And A Prince Of The Dark -To guide and assist the others on their heroic journey_

_Those three are the key to banishing the **Angel's Heaven;**_

_The place that embodies the unbalance of Shine and Shadow_

_And saving the world as we know it..._

The hooded figure's voice lost the hypnotic ring to it, and they could tell the prophecy was over. Kris clapped at the speech, and could almost see the trace of blush from underneath that hood.

"But now, a second fountain has appeared, and the balance is being broken as we speak. Please, heroes, save my kingdom, my world, from destruction."

"... Nah."

Kris immediately turned and glared at Susie, flabbergasted. "Susie, why the hell do you WANT the end of the world?"

"Because... it seems like a fun time. The kind of time only a person like me could enjoy." A vicious grin overcame her stoic expression, and the prophet began to talk.

"Susie, I know you can't mean that-"

Suddenly, a speeding, flaming bike crashed into the narrator and sent them flying into the stone walls surrounding them. The rider gave a childish cackle and looked at the 'Heroes'.

"Ah... Too bad! The Clownlings have already given up on sealing our fountain. Well, at least you had enough sense to say goodbye to your only way home!" Looking at Susie, Kris could tell she'd just been given a reason to not fuck this up. They both looked at the black and white living spade.

"Ah, our only way home, you say?" Kris said, a sly smirk on his face.

"Yup! And I'm here to keep you from getting there! So prepare to brawl, you high-tier Mimes!"

An instinct overcame both the 'Heroes' and they got into battle position, with their weapons in hand. They looked at the spade, then down to their weapons, and they grinned. Too easy. Then Kris stopped smiling and wanted to brain himself with his sword. No killing. That was one thing he would hold himself to.

So, he let his sword hanging from the side, and took his turn. He went ahead and ACTed his Compliment.

He snapped his fingers and pointed at Lancer. "I can't tell your body apart from your clothes." Basking in his compliment, Lancer's attack decreased.

Then Susie came in with her ax and tried to separate him from his clothes. Violently. Good thing fights here were turn-based, or they'd already had a dead body on their hands. Then, it was Lancer's turn. For some strange reason, he went after the guy who complimented him instead of his assailant. Kris quickly jumped out of the way when Lancer came charging at him on his bike. He then rode right back to his position.

This time, Kris ACTed a Warning and gave Lancer a heads up for his crazy Axe-Woman. He nodded, and the next attack Susie went for, he dodged easily.

Lancer attacked Kris again, the goddamn spade, and Kris just jumped to the side again and was immediately stabbed in the back by a spade. He shrugged off the injury and went back to his side.

"Wait! I'm almost out of fuel. Alright, Clowns, I'll come after you later, so prepare for your inevitable thrashing!" Lancer rode off and threw some money on the ground, probably to bribe them so they wouldn't chase after them. It worked, to say the least.

Soon, the Hooded Prince wobbled over to them, dizzy from his sudden education on the interiors of the stone wall. Well, to be fair, he did get it from first-hand experience.

"A-are you two okay?" He asked, no longer trying to sound mysterious.

"Yeah, we're fine,'' Susie replied.

"Oh, yeah, we're both completely fine. I particularly enjoy bleeding from being essentially **_stabbed._**" Kris said venomously, a burning sensation in his back. Susie just shrugged in response. "Well, no need to be so angry. Why not just get better at dodging."

Kris immediately took back whatever notion of friendship he had about Susie. It took all his willpower to not say anything in response. He just resigned to giving her a hateful glare.

"Uh, guys, I know you're angry-"

"Man, can you just take off the hood. It makes it hard to hear you." Susie said, which Kris agreed with. Not that he'd admit that at the moment.

"Oh! Right, sorry." He took off the hood to reveal-

A sharp pain twisted through Kris' head when he saw the prince's face. Memories flashed vividly as he saw the kid in front of him. He dumbly mumbled, "As..riel?"

"Uh, no." He responded, clearly confused. "I am Ralsei, Prince of No One! It's a pleasure to meet you, Kris." He said in a voice too cheerful and bright to belong to Asriel. Not after everything that he'd been through. So, he shook him out of his mind and looked at Ralsei. He had black fur, with a green hat and blouse combo. And, not to mention a snazzy scarf to bring it together. All in all, the Lonely Prince was the most well dressed one there. Then, Kris realized he was staring, and gave his best attempt at a grin.

"Hey, Ralsei. Nice to meet you too." He held out his hand, which Ralsei shyly took. They shook, and Ralsei went to introduce himself to Susie, to which she gruffly rejected.

"I don't need introductions since I'm going to do my best to forget you the second our 'quest' is over." Ralsei flinched at the remark but put on a smile anyway. "That's okay! You don't have to help me, just please save my world."

"Uhh, okay? Well, we should pick up the pace so we aren't late for lunch." Her growling stomach seemed to agree. Well, she probably didn't plan on eating _only_ chalk today, so that was fair. So, she went off at a shockingly fast pace, leaving Kris with the person identical to the one he could never save.

"Kris?"

"Yeah Az- Ralsei?" He responded, almost using an old nickname for Asriel instead.

"Well, as you know, I have no subjects in my kingdom, so I've been waiting here for... My entire life. So, I hope we can become good friends." The purity of this kid was astounding. Kris couldn't help rub the top of his head, through his giant hat.

"I hope so too, Ral," Kris said, chuckling. "Let's go follow our big dinosaur companion, huh?" Ralsei nodded, and as they went, a little song resounded from his soul.

_***Ralsei joined the party! The power of Fluffy Boys shines within you!**_

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**[Hey guys, Selah here. Just going to remind everyone I don't have a set schedule, so I upload whenever I feel the chapter is finished. Also, while it may follow the story of Deltarune pretty closely, I will branch out and make it just something else. Eventually. So, those who are looking forward to this, hit the buttons to show how you feel, don't forget ( I'm with you in the dark) to review and tell me how good or bad I did with this story, as your opinions matter greatly to me. As always, thanks for reading! See your next installment!]**

**Wow, look at this nerd up there, making musical references on a fanfiction site. Anyway, what he said about schedules. Thanks for reading, see you next revised.**


	4. Finding A Path

Kris and Ralsei walked through the empty town, aiming to find Susie again. The black, faded kingdom was completely silent, except for their echoing footsteps. Kris looked around the kingdom again, a twinkle of appreciation shining in his eyes. Underneath the mop of hair, at least. So, to Ralsei, it looked like the blue stranger was just looking at buildings for no reason at all. The smell of chalk filled the air and gave Kris flashes of prior memories. Of drawings.

"D... do you like the buildings?" Ralsei asked, and was shocked by Kris' excentric reply. "I love them. The color palette here is astounding. The dark, cold blues, the black that surrounds them, the purple to add just a hint of a combination of the two... I'm pretty jealous." He turned to his black and green friend, a small grin on his face. "You have a beautiful kingdom, Ralsei." A light redness was seen through Ralsei's cheeks.

"Thank you, Kris. That's very kind of you to say..." It seemed as if the Dark Prince was trying to shrink into his pink scarf. It made it hard to recognize his blushing face. "Oh... That's why it's pink." Kris commented, causing Ralsei to give him an upturned look.

"I-it's no problem. But, what happened to your subjects here?" Ralsei blinked quickly and turned back ahead. Kris sighed. Ralsei probably didn't want to talk about why he had no citizens. No one would want to explain why they were all alone.

As they walked together, the silence grew awkward and stressed. Kris was at a bypass. Either he apologized, or he ended up leaving it at that sour note. He scratched the side of his head._ Damn, it's been a while since I apologized, huh?_ Kris thought. Then, the echoing steps and silence reminded him of-

"Uh, Kris?" He turned his head to Ralsei. "Don't you think we should... Run to Susie?" Kris sighed.

"Well, No matter how fast we run, Susie will run faster purely out of spite. And, what's the worst that could happen? Susie knows how to defend herself." Kris nodded as he remembered the 'recent' battle with Lancer. She had fought extremely well for a beginner. Well, a beginner when it came to axes, at least. Ralsei nodded. "You're right. I just hope she doesn't hurt anyone on accident. Darkners aren't the best at dealing with attacks."

"Right. Their bodies aren't as solid as mine, so they're weak to physical attacks." He said. Ralsei nodded. "We have no physical form whatsoever. The Dark Fountain gives us form, so we're a bundle of mist held together by our magic." They walked off, down a dark corridor. The smell of chalk had begun to fade away, and they came across a strange dummy. It wore the same blouse, scarf, and hat that Ralsei had, too.

"Hey, Ral. I think I found your long lost brother. Or sister. I won't judge." He jostled Ralsei and nudged him with an elbow. "Oh! The dummy I made! This is a great chance to teach you some moves in combat. Let's form up!" Kris and Ralsei jumped into a combat stance in front of the dummy. His sword appeared in his hands in an instant, which felt strangely natural.

"Alright Kris, I saw your brawl earlier, and I know you know most of the basics. But, here's some extra stuff to finish off the cake! Let's work together against the Dummy. My spells are Pacify, which forces TIRED enemies to sleep, and Healing Prayer, which heals you! Also, don't forget to defend, and coordinate our attacks to finish as soon as possible." Ralsei rushed to remind him. Kris sighed and focused on his enemy. Then, bullets came out of it randomly. Though it was really easy to just sidestep them, and the whistle as they flew by was low and long. Too slow to be a challenge.

As soon as the barrage stopped, he exhaled slowly. He absentmindedly tapped at the ground, thinking of his first move. He snapped his fingers as his plan formed. He went up to the dummy, spun his sword in his hands, and did a simple hilt-thrust into the dummy's stomach. He stepped back, and soon after, was thrown another breeze of bullets.

He snapped his fingers once more and went up to hug the dummy, ignoring the weirdness of it. As soon as he stepped back, he called back to Ralsei. "Spare it!" The Dark Prince spread out his arms and smiled at the _opponent_. The fight ended there, and Kris' sword dissipated into mist. He chuckled as he worked out the creaks in his shoulders. Felt like he hadn't held a sword in a month. Or maybe 3. In any case, he turned back to his _teacher_ and smiled. "Thanks for the review, Ral. Now, I'm sure I know how to defend myself."

"Oh! Right, you can summon a shield to defend yourself with. Learn when you need it. In the meantime, in case there was anything else you needed, I have a manual for all things Dark for you!" Ralsei reached into his blouse and/or dress, and pulled out a messy tomb filled with notes on the Dark Land and how it worked. As Kris took it from him, he felt the weight of the shockingly heavy book and Ralsei's expecting smile. He gripped onto it, and as he wondered where he was going to put it, it poofed into a black mist that wafted through the air.

"That's convenient." Was all he said. Ralsei nodded, and the two of them went on their way down the path, following the place Susie would end up. Maybe. Kris noticed that Ralsei walked with a bit more of a spring in his step. By that, he meant he was skipping a bit as the two of them wandered down the dark hall together. Maybe their 'lesson' made things less awkward.

In any case, they eventually made it to a giant golden set of doors swung open. A rune was etched into it at the top. Two triangles pointing up, one down, and a pair of wings on either sign. Kris knew it better than anyone else. "The Angle's seal..." He muttered under his breath. Ralsei didn't notice whatsoever, as he talked about something completely different.

"Oh no! Lancer must've left the door open when he came in. Susie probably went into the Field. We should hurry to follow her before someone gets hurt." Kris nodded his agreement.

"Alright Ral, let's go." They both walked off, Kris leading ahead like a veteran soldier marching to a battlefield, and Ralsei following, with a feeling of small appreciation and curiosity at the blue figure that was, for lack of a better term, the savior of this world. As they passed onto the Field, Ralsei turned back to close the door back up. It clanged back together, and their story truly began.

"Welcome, to the Field of Hopes and Dreams!" Ralsei told him, acting like a proud tour guide. As soon as he entered, his soul resonated with all the excitement and curiosity he felt. He was back, on a new adventure to fix himself so he could save what matters most. That feeling shone within his very being, and he let out an excited breath from his chest.

"Wow, this place is beautiful." He was once again impressed with the Darkland's setting. The purple grass that shifted as though the wind was flowing back and forth, and scarlet trees that edged along the path, as if shielding off this patch of color from the darkness surrounding them.

"You say that a lot, but it makes me happy every time you do!" Ralsei smiled brightly at him, which led to Kris patting his head from the top of his hat. "Anytime, Ral. Besides, who wouldn't think that this place was beautiful? It's-" A scream echoed from down the path, cutting off Kris from going on another artistic rant. They began running towards the sound, being heroes and all. Too bad Darkners appeared out of nowhere and attacked them.

They instantly went into formation against the 3 Rudinn. The smell of jewelry wafted through the air. Kris gripped his blade tightly as it appeared, trying to figure out a plan. Then, he made his move and snapped his fingers at the center Rudinn. "Hey, let's not fight, please." The diamond slug nodded contentedly, and Ralsei waved them goodbye as they slithered away.

Then, Kris noticed the two remaining Rudinns all turned towards him. He lifted his sword level with them and was hit with several diamond bullets. He inhaled sharply as he felt the sharp pains the diamonds left on his arms and face. _They were faster than expected. Or maybe I'm not used to strategizing._ He thought when suddenly he felt the pain go away. Ralsei had started using Healing Prayer on him. He mumbled a thank you as Ralsei finished the spell, and looked back at the Rudinns, who had set their sights on the healer.

A flash of rage-filled Kris' mind, and before he knew what he was doing, he had run to the Diamond Slugs. Startled, they sent random bullets to get him to stop moving. Kris drew his sword and sliced through the bullets. They weren't diamonds, just shaped like them, so they were easy to cut. He then jumped towards them, and slammed their heads together, making them dizzy. "Get out of here." He said slowly, and his hair moved for a second to show them the red anger in his eyes. Which was extra terrifying, as they saw 4 pairs of them. So, they took his 'MERCY' and left the battle. Once his sword had faded back to mist, Kris' anger faded as he turned to look at Ralsei. The Dark Prince had a conflicted look on his face.

"S-Sorry Ral. I don't always use pacifism to solve my problems. Not anymore, at least." He apologized, which made Ralsei a bit flustered.

"O-oh! It's okay, I understand. I'm just surprised that that counted as SPARING." He said quickly, making Kris confused as well.

"Wait, that counted as SPARING? Well, I didn't seriously injure them, and I let them go, so I guess that could work..." Muttering, Kris waved for Ralsei to follow him once more. He did but now began to wonder more about the figure in front of him. _How was he able to trick the system into counting that as sparring? And, how was he so fast then, but couldn't dodge those bullets?_ Ralsei's respect for the human grew even more after seeing that. "Well," He started once more, moving in front of Kris.

"Please, don't attack people for hurting you again," Ralsei asked as respectfully as he could, and even bowed as he said that. Kris paused in front of him. Then, he put his hands on Ralsei's shoulders and led him back upright.

"I promise, I won't attack people for something as petty as getting even. Though, that's not why I lashed out at that necklace of Rudinn." Ralsei tilted his head slightly and asked, "Then why did you attack them?" Kris gave him a small smirk and answered.

"Because they were about to attack _you_ Ral. And, as my favorite guide, I wasn't about to stand there and let you get hurt." This made the black goat he was holding blush.

"O-oh..." was all he said in response. Kris chuckled, and a sharp pain was felt in his chest. A flash of pain was seen on his face, but it was gone as soon as it had appeared. "Well, we've got a Barney Clone to find. Let's go." He cut the moment short, and the two of them went off down the linear path to find Susie.

***The irritation of searching shines within you!**

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[**Alright, no more stats and shi- stuff anymore. I'll save that for a different series I'm working on. But, before that, I have to say this. I'm SO sorry I haven't updated in like 3 months. I know I said this upload schedule would be inconsistent, but that's inexcusable. So, to make it up to you, I got a new promise for you. One upload every 2 weeks, at the very least. I'd make it weekly, but I got other books I need to publish weekly. As always, thanks for reading, and be sure to review and like and whatever else if you want. See you in 2 weeks!**]

**Oh yeah, I did have another story I wanted to make. Maybe I'll start it after Chapter 2 is finished. And, I'm just about to say what I say in every chapter, so you should know the drill. See ya.**


	5. A Stroll On A Dark Path

After a quick ten minute stroll, Kris and Ralsei found themselves in THE MAZE OF SIGNS (Trademark, Lancer). It was weird seeing the signs. He and Ralsei both had personal favorites. Ral's was _'Welcome, my little grapes, to THE MAZE OF SIGNS!' _signed, Lancer.

His impression of the small snowball baby was spot on, right on to the tiny lisp on the 's'. That gave both of them a polite chuckle, with an added mischievous snicker when Ralsei realized his impression could've been seen as being rude and started worrying about how he should apologize. Kris assured him that Lancer wouldn't mind a joke or two. The worried look on his face faded. Mostly.

As they walked on, they saw another sign and Lancer. Kris turned to Ralsei, who walked side by side with him. The green blouse wearing a black goat walked towards the spade. Kris sighed. He didn't even get a choice in the matter. Like a dog being dragged by the leash.

He begrudgingly followed Ralsei, and they all asked what was happening.

"Oh! You clowns made it outta THE MAZE OF SIGNS (trademark)?! Good job! You both made it up to my top 7 favorite people." Kris had no idea how to respond with that, so he let Ralsei do the talking.

"Ah... T-thank you? Anyway, have you seen Susie anywhere?" Ralsei asked, avoiding the proverbial speedbump in the conversation. Lancer, like the weird child he is, started to chuckle giddily.

"Ohohohohoho!" He said, giving them both a wide grin. "You clownlings are way too late! I've already battled her!" Ralsei's eyes widened behind his green glasses. Kris just stood there, waiting for what was coming.

"W-what happened to Susie?" The black goat asked nervously. Lancer gave a creepy, doll-like smile, and said, "She kicked my ass, and I ran away."

"There it is," Kris commented slyly as Ralsei gave the most unimpressed look imaginable. "That's... anti-climatic." He said slowly.

"Yeah, as I was running away, she was talking about how 'that Blue Man Group reject' was just holding her back." Kris gritted his teeth. "Oh, that's you, huh? Where's the group, Blue Man?" He laughed like he was being tickled eternally. _Great, now there's two of them. At least Ral won't do that._ He thought, scratching the back of his head.

"K-kris? I-I'm sure the Blue Man Group wasn't thinking straight when they rejected you!" Ralsei said this with such an abundance of compassion and empathy, Kris couldn't even think of holding a grudge.

"...It's fine. I'd rather be apart of our group anyway. Speaking of our group, Lancer, where'd the big Purple Dinosaur from our imagination go?"

"Wait, the scary girl is just an illusion? Then, I guess we have nothing to fear but fear itself after all! The old guy who said that _wasn't_ crazy! I gotta go apologize, she's just down the path that doesn't have a Dark Candy at the end!" Lancer then slid off to the side, not moving his legs an inch.

_Please don't be wearing Heelies_, pleaded Kris mentally as Ralsei's face lit up. In a manner of speaking.

"Kris! You should try the Dark Candy! It'll take just a second, let's go!" Ralsei asked him, like a child pleading for candy. Except more wholesome and selfless. Kris nodded his agreement, as his jaw seemed to clamp down on itself. Ralsei grabbed his hand and led him down the path to the tree.

The Dark Candy was high in the branches of a black tree with dark purple leaves. Ralsei had started apologizing about how they couldn't reach it, and that he'd delayed them for no reason, but was ignored by Kris. He was too busy staring at the black trunk of the tree.

Suddenly, he was back in the Underground, his hand on the base of the tree as he watched Toriel walk back into her cozy home he'd just been invited to. He smiled at the warm memory, and could almost taste the Butterscotch Cinnamon pie again. But, his mind wasn't done yet.

He was at the same place, hand against the tree, staring at Toriel's back as she strolled off, ignorant to the abundant dust on his hands, and the toy dagger he planned on planting into her back-

"Kris? Are you okay?" Asri- Ralsei's voice pulled him out of his memories. He had put his hand against the tree, and he could feel the stream of tears tracing down his cheek. This close, he could smell the marshmallows and chocolate from the candy. He wiped his eyes and plastered on a smile as he turned back to Ralsei.

"I...I'm fine, Ral. Just... nostalgic. Here, let me think of something." Kris stepped away from the tree and looked at it without the nostalgia. It was tall, at least double his height. And, as he and Ralsei were about the same height, he couldn't reach either. If only they had...

Kris absentmindedly snapped his fingers, which called for Ralsei's attention. "Ral, I'm going to give you a leg up to the treats."

"What's... a leg up?" He asked. It was a fair question, coming from a Lonely Prince. Kris bent down a bit and layered his hands together in front of him. "Put your foot here." Ralsei followed directions obediently, if not a bit cautiously.

"Ral, don't shake too much. You may slip. Put your other foot here." Ralsei did, and Kris was shocked at how light he was. In terms of weight. God, all these color jokes just don't stop coming.

With a small _hup_ Kris raised his Darkner companion skyward, to the tree. He kept still as a statue and waited until Ralsei said he was finished. When he got slowly put the Prince down, one of the Dark Candies fell out of his hand and hit the ground with a depressing _splat_. They both stared at the lost treat, the Ralsei had another _politeness freakout_, apologizing for dropping the treat, and handed the last one to Kris.

Kris looked down at the treat. Ralsei had pointed it out so that he could have it. It would've made sense for him to just munch on it right in front of him. His body was screaming at him to just eat the chocolate, too.

So, he did the nice thing and summoned his sword to cut the treat in half. Bits of marshmallows were still stuck on the blade when he sent it back to darkness.

"Here. Let's share." Ralsei took up his offer and delightedly ate the half star treat. The look on his face as he chomped on the treat was adorable. Kris, seeing how delicious this treat was, chewed into it. He was shocked at how good it tasted. "Just like a s'more, but no crackers."

And he dug into the treat. He didn't notice how much he'd eaten until it was gone. Damn, that chocolate star was addictive. He gave Ralsei a sticky, chocolate-covered grin.

"Thanks. Needed a break from walking." Ralsei smiled back, and then they set back off down the path to find the Dinosaur from their imaginations. [**I'm running out of Barney references, send help.**]

As they walked onward, they spotted a Darkner sadly dancing as he sobbed about a purple girl attacking his cake. Kris looked at the smoldering cake.

"..." He wanted to make a dumb comment on how it couldn't have been Susie because she wasn't hot enough to set a cake on fire. But cakes weren't as good a motivator for his self-expression as chocolate, apparently.

"Well, that sounds like Susie's doing. Let's go." Kris ordered, and the two of them walked off, leaving the chef to cry over his fallen cake alone. As the world intended.

On their way forward, Kris and Ralsei both humming a little tune, they were surprised by a bright green Heart-Squid hybrid thing that snuck upon them. Kris and Ralsei both jumped into formation and started at the Darkner.

Kris analyzed the opponent, Hathy. It was mute, and with its heart-shaped head, it seemed like the type to be weak to flirting. Kris chuckled slightly and drew the monster's attention. He moved a bit of his hair out of his face, revealing a single eye with a ruby iris. It started at Hathy intently, and as Heathy met his gaze, his expression softened and he gave it a small wink with a warm grin.

He chuckled when Hathy put one of its dominant tentacles onto its face and tried to hide its embarrassment.

"Ral, spare it please." He requested, and Ralsei spoke to the sole Hathy. "Let's not fig-" Suddenly, they were surrounded by a heart-cutout. It spun, then jerked to the side, forcing to Kris grab Ralsei with him as he ran to avoid it, receiving a cut on his arm along the way. _Note to self, Hathys send up attacks faster than usual._

When the cutout faded Kris turned to Hathy and requested they not see each other anymore, with strained patience. Hathy respected his decision and ended the battle. Outside of combat, his cut throbbed with pain. He forced himself to sit down onto the shifting grass beneath him. "Wow, love hurts." He said, then sucked the air between his teeth as Ralsei slowly grabbed his arm.

"I'm so sorry! I just needed you to put out your arm so-" Kris did exactly that, which shut Ralsei up. He began muttering quickly, with a bright light surrounding him. His green hat blocked his face from Kris, so he couldn't tell what he was saying. It didn't matter anyway, as humans couldn't learn magic. When the Mage finished his prayer, he raised his hand upwards, healing Kris's body easily. There wasn't even a trace of a scar where the cut was. Kris nodded at Ralsei.

"Your Healing Prayer is amazing. I'm glad I don't have to cram food into my stomach to heal anymore." Kris shivered at the memory of Mid-Battle snacks. Crumbs ended up everywhere. Ralsei, who ignoring the shivering, smiled. "Yep! I'll always be here to heal your wounds, so don't worry!"

"Got it. Now, let's get going." Ralsei held out his hand and helped Kris up, which got him a mumbled 'thank you'. And they set off once more. Until they ran into an actual puzzle.

"Okay, the hell is this?" Kris asked no one. There was a single clock on a wall, some giant triggers on the ground, and a double spike pathway that lead on ahead. He walked up to the clock and pressed the small button underneath. The clock began to glow, and sections of it faded over time. Kris turned back at the 3 triggers and waited until the timer finished ticking. When it did, the single glowing tile faded back to gray with the other two. Kris nodded appreciatively.

"Ok, Ralsei," The Dark Prince, who had been watching Kris, jumped a bit as he heard his name. "I need you to follow me as we step on the switches, okay?" Ralsei nodded.

Kris pressed the button and ran at the puzzle. He triggered the first switch and heard a _chink_ as the first set of spike retracted. He and Ralsei went and stepped on the next two glowing switches. The puzzle finished with a little chime. Then, Ralsei began to politely clap. "You did it! Good job." The simple compliment was unnecessary, but it felt good to be complimented. "_We _did it." Kris corrected, then raised his hand in front of Ralsei.

"Uh... what are you doing, Kris?" Ralsei asked. "Oh, you don't know. It's a high five. Something Lightners do when they did a good job together." Ralsei's eyes glinted with curiosity. "How do you do it?" He asked. Kris sighed and slightly shook his head. "It's simple. We raise our hands and hit them against each other. Like this." Kris held Ralsei's arm and lifted it. With his dominant arm, he gave the Darkner a soft bump with his palm.

"Okay, now you try." Kris held his hand up and waited. Ralsei high-fived him lightly and pulled back as quickly as he had hit him. "Good. Now, I've passed down that tradition to the Darkland. Be sure to teach others of this, too." Kris jokingly stressed the importance of high-fiving to Ralsei, who ate it up. Kris tried his best not to laugh as they set out past the spikes, where they found another Lancer sign.

_'HAHAHAHA! DID YOU THINK THAT WAS MY ONLY MAZE? YOU DUMBOS, THIS IS MY MOST POWERFUL MAZE! NO ONE WHO ENTERS EVER ESCAPES ALIVE, INCLUDING ME! WELCOME, TO PRINCE LANCER'S _MAZE OF DEATH! (Trademark, Lancer)' signed, Lancer.

"Oh." The Spade was working for that name recognition.

"That was mean of him. We aren't dumb." Ralsei commented, a tiny bit annoyed.

"Well, let's prove it by escaping his Maze Of Death (TM). You ready for even more walking?" Ralsei shrugged. "Good enough. Let's go."

_***The repetition of mazes shines within you!**_

[**Okay, I uploaded it again. Way sooner than you expected, I believe. But it was WAY later than planned, so yeah. Thanks for reading, don't forget to favorite and bookmark and whatever other buttons there are. See you next update**]

**We all know this song and dance, thanks for reading, reviews, please.**


	6. Party Full!

"Jeez, there's a lot of walking to the Eastern Castle, huh?" Kris commented as they walked through the MAZE OF DEATH (Trademark and Copyright Lancer). Ralsei nodded. "Yep. It's great exercise though." Kris mimicked his nod and kept on the path.

The maze was nowhere near difficult. Sure, it was time-consuming and slightly boring, but not at all hard to walk through. Then, he spotted some squished pink puzzle pieces. He and Ralsei jogged over to the pieces lying in the abyssal black edge of his vision.

"Are you guys alright? What happened?" Ralsei asked concern etched into his dark expression. Kris CHECKed the piece as he began to talk.

"This purple beast ran up and clobbered all of our units!" Jigsawry's words were filled with absolute terror. "We never even saw her ax coming! Thank our Deck in the sky that she didn't do anything too drastic..." Ralsei went and gave the Jigsawry some comforting words as Kris thought the situation over. First, she somehow sets a cake on fire. Then, she takes out an entire unit of soldiers. He didn't want to see the next mess she left behind. He looked around the paths and spotted a red chest on one of the faraway paths.

"Listen, Jigsawry. We'll take care of this purple '_beast_' that attacked your set of pieces. Ral, let's head off." He waved for his Darkner friend to follow him and they strolled to the red chest. Kris hummed himself a small theme as he began to open the chest. He reached inside and lifted his prize in the air.

"Da da da _daaaa! A white ribbon!"_ He said jokingly as he put his hand down to a normal level.

"Who leaves a single ribbon in a treasure chest?" He asked, not expecting the Lonely Prince to answer him. "That's because it's like a treasure to us! It's an armor, an enchanted item that increases our strength. You should put it on." Kris raised an eyebrow at Ralsei as he looked at the ribbon in between his fingers. He didn't much like the idea of wearing this, as it seemed way too cutesy for him. So, he got another useless idea.

"Alright Ral, close your eyes while I put this on." Ralsei complied way too easily, even covering his eyes with his hands and turning around. Kris straightened the ribbon, and quickly tied it around Ralsei's hat into a bow. "Alright, I'm done." Ralsei turned to look at him and paused when he didn't see a ribbon on him. Kris responded by straightening the bow on his hat. "You take the ribbon. It suits you."

"R...really? Do I look pretty?" Ralsei asked shyly.

"You're the most beautiful person I've ever laid eyes on." Kris' flirty nature took over in an instant. Ralsei's smile did as well. He was getting better at handling his flirting. Which... said a lot about Kris' habits.

"Now, let's get going. Man, I need new ways to say 'let's head out'." He commented as they walked towards the trap Lancer had left for them. Well, Kris walked. Ralsei skipped as he relished his new ribbon and compliments.

"Hohoho? It seems the two weakest Clowns are all that stand against me, the baddest bad guy. Who's really bad." Kris stood completely still, not being able to move. "Well, it's time you Clowns find a new act! I recommend getting beat up!" Suddenly, a trio of Hathys surrounded the hued heroes.

Having got the jump on them, the Hathys attacked them first. Kris and Ralsei both stepped closer together as they were surrounded by a circle of rotating hearts. Ralsei gave Lancer an unimpressed look. "Lancer... why did you send out 3 support type Darkners? Their bullet patterns aren't good by themselves. It's like... only picking paper for Rock Paper Scissors."

"Is... that bad?" Lancer asked, with a slight tilt of the head. Or spade. Kris and Ralsei sighs were synchronized. Kris ordered Ralsei to compliment the enemies. "I'm glad we got to meet you! Would you like to come over to my castle sometime for tea?" The Hathys lost all their aggression at that moment, and Kris sent them off with a swish of his hand. Ralsei found he had received dark coins after the fight was over.

"Ral... where'd you get that?" Kris asked. Ralsei just shrugged. "Oh. Aren't you... supposed to get money when you beat me?" Lancer asked, confused. Ralsei was about to correct him, but Kris cut him off. "Yes! I didn't realize it was money, my bad." Truly, he was a master liar. Too bad Ralsei was a good person. "Kris, we don't get money for winning. Here, take it back." Ralsei went and handed the stack of blackened coins to the spade. "Oh! Thank you, not-a-liar! Later, Blue Liar!" An evil laugh resounded as Lancer slid away from them.

"Sorry for lying," Was all Kris said. Ralsei said something about it being fine as long as he didn't make a habit out of it. Kris thought he sounded way too much like Toriel. But, it seemed like he was once again blocked from expression. So, feeling like a boring human-made robot, he set off to the east once more. And walked right into a puzzle.

"Oh wow. How original. Another pressure plate puzzle. And it seems like there are even more buttons this time. Let me guess, it takes 3 people to get past this one." Kris stomped over the blue flooring and pressed the button underneath the clock. The clock started ticking down as he and Ralsei tried to solve the puzzle, but were hit with the predicted roadblock of needing 3 people. Kris cursed violently at the puzzle. "Fine. Let's hope Susie somehow didn't make it past this puzzle." He walked off to the right, where lo and behold, Susie was waiting there. She was just as frustrated as Kris, as she slammed against the door with her scaly hands.

"Yeah, screw doors am I right?" Kris joked as he walked up to the bully. She jeered at his comment. "Yeah. I'd rather walk through some more spikes." Kris nodded.

"Well, are you just going to stand there, or are we going to gang up on this door," Susie said, then tried kicking the door down.

"I have a plan. But we need to team up. So, don't run away from us again, please?" Susie made a sound of pure inconvenience and turned back at him and Ralsei. "Fine. I guess I can deal with you for the rest of the way." Ralsei beamed and walked up to her.

"Yay, Susie joined the party! Cue the fanfare!"

The same sound that played when he and Ralsei teamed up shone in Kris' heart. But, on the ending cue, a party popper appeared in both his and Ralsei's hands. They pulled, and the poppers popped and crackled in the air.

"Welcome to the team, Mean Girl," Kris said flatly. Susie weirded out, decided to just walk back to the puzzle area, putting some distance to disassociate with the rest of the Delta Warriors. [**That's the original team name. I just wanted to remind you.**] The others followed her back.

"Alright, on my cue, step on the colored tiles. Now." They all scrambled onto the illuminated tiles and somehow managed to solve the puzzle correctly. A loud click told them the stone door was gone. On their way to it, they came across a red checker piece with a familiar face. The familiarity was _dogging _Kris. Suddenly, the three heroes were forced into a battle with the Darkner.

"Kris, we should teach Susie how to ACT," Ralsei whispers to him as they all get into their new triple formation. He nods as he asks Susie to compliment the canine checker piece.

"Aaannd hell no. Why would I compliment the ENEMY?"

"Because we don't want to hurt it, Susie," Ralsei responded, leaving Kris out of the conversation. "Just... try complimenting it, please." Ralsei bowed as he requested Susie to play nice. Susie just rolled her eyes and grunted.

"Fine. Hey, Red!" The looked up at the towering violet reptile before it. "Nice ax in your face. Where'd you get it?" Then, ax in hand, she slashed at the poor piece's face, sending it running away with tears in its big black eyes.

"... I'm ninety percent sure that wasn't what Ral meant." Was all Kris said as he lead the two opposites to the next area. Which, happened to contain another puzzle piece, but this time he had a black beanie. And was blue. He seemed pretty shady. So, when he walked up to the three of them, Kris was already on guard.

"Hey... you wanna buy a tutorial? Only fifty dark dollars." Kris shook his head.

"D-did I say fifty? I meant twenty-five!" Kris shook his head once more.

"ONE! ONE DOLLAR FOR A TUTORIAL! PLEASE, I NEED SOMETHING RIGHT NOW!" Kris was shocked by the pleading expression on the Jigsawry's face. He guessed he would've knelt and grovelled if he had knees. Kris shrugged.

"Susie, did you mug anyone before we caught up to you?" She sneered at him. "No, but thanks for the idea, Blueberry." Kris decided to not respond.

"Ral, what about you?" Ralsei held out an empty hand, and the black mist gathered in his hands. A single black coin appeared in his palm. He handed it to Kris, who passed it to the teary-eyed puzzle piece. "Wait, where'd you get this?"

"Kris, I'm a prince. I always carry some pocket money with me." Ralsei responded simply, while the puzzle piece lead them to a little clearing filled with the shifting purple grass. A hole caught Kris' attention. "Alright, Blueberry, just toss the coin in the pit, and we'll teach you." Blueberry begrudgingly tossed the coin into the pit.

"Alright, we've got some guys over there. Talk to em for what you want to know."

"Hey! I'm Ralsei Master! Talk to me about Ralseis'!" Kris eyed Ralsei. "Why does he know your name?"

"Jigsawry's are well-known tutorial Masters. They are all taught information that will become useful later in life."

"So, _how _does he know your name?" Ralsei just shrugged in response. Great.

"How about... A fact?" Kris asked, accepting the thoughtless randomness of these living toys.

"Ralsei loves when you give us money! He'll hug you a bunch, and call you honey!" The Jigsawry rhymed a desperate plea for money. Not the worst begging he'd ever witnessed.

"Hey! I'd do that no matter if you paid me." Ralsei responded with a cheeky smile. Kris nodded and saved that information for later use. "Well, I guess we should just leave. It's not like we don't know how to fight, and we only paid them because they were beggars, so we should just check out the shop over there instead of asking about our strengths and weaknesses." Kris stated, pointing to a rickety shop they passed earlier.

"How dare you assume I have weaknesses," Susie said cockily and was given the coldest shoulder imaginable from her teammates. They all walked into the shop, and Kris looked in awe at all the oddities and wares the shop had. There was even a little bunny-eared doll on one of the shelves. Then, his attention was pulled towards the source of resounding laughter. A big ragged purple cat seemed to be the source. He seemed to have lost an eye and replaced it with a button. The evidence of that was a little scar underneath his button. And that wasn't the only disfiguration on the cat's body. But, he'd stared long enough.

"Hee hee... Welcome, travelers. My name is Seam. And this is my shop. Filled with objects I've come across over the years. Now, what would you like?" Kris turned to Ralsei. "Hey, how much money do you have?"

"Kris, you know as the leader, you can access my money as well, right?" Kris coughed slightly, and he turned back around to the shopkeep. "Do you have any armor for me and my reptilian partner here?" He pointed to Susie, who was pointedly ignoring them. Seam chuckled. "I have just the thing for her. And for you."

From out of nowhere, he pulled out an Amber Card. Ralsei quickly explained that it was an item that hardened when a dangerous object got close to it. Kris pulled out some black coins and purchased two. He tossed one to Susie and told her to place it on her chest, as it was the most vulnerable point for monsters when fighting someone who had magic. She grumbled but put it on anyway. It flashed and disappeared in her purple shirt. Kris loved it when magical items didn't appear visually. He liked his attire, and a blob of orange semi-crystallized rock didn't work with it. Kris was about to thank the ragged cat and leave when a sword appeared on Seam's counter.

He examined the blade. It had a sharper edge than his blade and was made of more durable material. The hilt, though, was etched with a skull and two bat wings as the guard. It was pretty spooky if he said so himself.

"It looks so... edgy," Susie said, not incorrect.

"That's a pun if I've ever heard one," Kris responded, which made Susie grumble some insulting threats under her breath. Kris, who had already died a considerable amount, was unfazed. "How much?" Kris himself didn't understand how expensive or inexpensive the price was, but by the sharp inhale between Ralsei's teeth, he could tell it was pretty pricy. For some reason, Kris slumped his shoulders despondently and said "It's fine. Let's go."

On their way onwards, Kris thanked Ralsei endlessly for paying for everything, including his new sword. Ralsei accepted his thanks politely and responded that he would do better with a new sword. After all, he always ended up protecting him, so it was the least he could do. While the two shorties went back and forth with their thanks for each other, Susie was scoffing and making jabs at their politeness.

"You two dorks are so polite, you'd probably apologize for making a mess after someone cut you."

"And you're so rude that you would insult the guy who just bought you free armor. Which was probably _super_ expensive." Kris responded, and the conversation went on with the three of them getting used to each other's presence and feedback. Susie made insulting jabs with her sharp tongue, Ralsei gave some positivity and overall kindness, and Kris made artistic and logical observations. It wouldn't be a surprise that they didn't get too used to each other. Kris was, essentially, the mid-ground that gave each of them someone who understood where they came from. He made sure Ralsei didn't become a victim of Susie, and that Susie didn't die of the lack of darkness. Metaphorically speaking. Although, Kris was getting tired of having to warn every rouge set of guards they came across. But, Susie was relentless with her adamancy on violence. He wished _he _could talk to her about the path she was taking. But, he couldn't even move his mouth to form the words on his mind. So, he went with the flow of their extremely long walk.

At times, his gaze wandered towards the sky. A dark, unending void met his gaze completely and utterly. He didn't fear the dark. It just brought about bad memories. So, he wished desperately that even the barest hint of light would reach his covered eyes. Nothing.

The Delta Warriors walked into another puzzle. Which, was thankfully not a timed puzzle again. Instead, it was an extremely simple box pushing puzzle. God, how he hated being the only one who did these puzzles. But, like a mindless machine, he did his task without a word the second he recognized it. The spiked gate was opened in an instant. Ralsei looked over to him, concern hidden in his dark green eyes. Kris shrugged.

"I'm tired of puzzles. Not like I can say something every time one shows up." He yawned and walked forward. His companions walked behind him obediently as they crossed into a new land.

"Wow, this is a nice change. Not gonna lie, was getting pretty tired of the purples and blues. Don't say a word, Susie." Kris turned to Susie, who laughed it off. "What was I gonna say, Blueberry? I'm at a loss here." Kris humphed and lead the way, a bit slower to take in his surroundings. Then, he immediately went to his normal pace. It was just a red and black checkerboard. Nothing special, although it did add some optional puns to add to the conversation. Nah, Kris liked his shtick.

Marching onwards, they saw an odd set of white statues along the normal path with no gimmicks that made a certain person want to tear their hair out. "CHECK," Kris muttered as he looked at the chess pieces. A text box appeared in the corner of his vision. The description put him on guard.

"Susie, Ral! Form up, the statues are alive!" Kris summoned his new sword and went into formation with the others as the odd statues hopped off their pedestals and attacked. They shot star-like bullets that tracked the heroes' movements. Susie found that out the hard way when she tried to dodge it with a simple sidestep. In outrage, Susie began to run at the Ponmen, who had a sleepy look in their eyes as they desperately ran for their lives. Kris had a completely unexpected and ingenious plan to win the encounter. He ran and slashed through the bullets being fired at him, and ran to Ralsei, who had been desperately dodging since he had realized the bullets tracked their while. "Ral, can you sing?" Ralsei nodded, and Kris ordered him to sing an entrancing lullaby. Suddenly, Kris was entangled in an enchanting tune that Ralsei had woven. Kris had to focus to keep himself awake, but the others weren't as conscious as he was. The beautiful melody had put the others to sleep immediately. So, Kris had to rouse the napping Susie awake. It took a lot of shaking and patience, but she woke up. She was groggy and not completely sure where she was and who they were, but it was better than dragging a suspiciously unconscious dinosaur to the Eastern Castle.

With Ral reminding Susie of what was happening, they walked to the end of the Great Board, which was unsurprisingly boring. [**It's late, my jokes aren't awake enough for this residue**] There, they found a bucket. And behind the bucket was a Lancer. "Ah, there you are. You've made it halfway across the kingdom, and halfway to the Fountain. So, you Clowns must-" Lancer suddenly stopped talking with no warning, and slid closer to the others.

"Wait, do you guys have a team name?" All three of them shook their heads. "Welp! Guess it's time you punk-a-roos get to naming. Everyone put a name into the bucket!" For some strange reason, every complied with this strange request. They ended up with three pieces of paper in the bucket.

"Okay, Blueberry, you choose, since you didn't add anything to the bucket." Kris didn't feel alright being ordered around when he was the _literal leader_, but he obeyed dispassionately. He looked at the pieces of paper. He automatically rejected the Lancer-labeled paper and went with the neatly folded one.

"The Three Heroes: Heralds of Fun and Friendship," Kris said with the most dead expression possible. Ralsei exclaimed excitedly, "OH! That one is mine! Y' see, I thought it'd be good to tell people exactly who we are, and that was the best one I thought of." _I don't want to see the ones you thought were worse_ thought both of Ralsei's teammates.

"Uh, Ral, I don't think it'll work." Susie eased her input onto Ralsei, trying not to hurt his feelings, oddly enough. "It's _way _too long. Let's try shorting it. Make it sound more intimidating and cool. Like... The Fun Gang." Kris started to laugh suddenly, embarrassing Susie and surprising Ralsei. His laughter cut off as soon as it had begun, and he explained himself. "Sorry, that name was just too good. I wholeheartedly approve of this name. The Fun Gang." He started chuckling like a toddler as he said the name. Susie was about to complain that she was just joking about the name but Ralsei interjected. "Well, it was made with my name, so I approve." Well, Susie had officially been outvoted. And now, Lancer was packing up his singular bucket and sliding over to the end of the path.

Kris remembered something and reached out for his save file. The childish joy the Fun Gang filled him with shone within him.

**The Angel**

**THE GREAT BOARD**

After he finished that, he followed Lancer to the end of the Great Board, where an old friend was waiting.

"Hey, it's that C. Round." Kris pointed out, and Lancer turned to his direction like he was a madman. "You... you _know _thing?!" Lancer said, terror evident in his voice. "Yeah. Susie beat it up." Lancer looked at the punk girl in a new light, "That's so cool! I've never seen anyone fight this guy and _survive!_" He cheered ominously. Susie, giving into her ego, went fishing for compliments. "Yeah, well, what does that guy even do? It must be something about running away."

As she said this, the C. Round had stepped over to the last row of red and black tiles. A crown from out of nowhere was placed onto his head, and he grew into a massive size. Although, most of his new muscle mass went into his legs. He turned to look down at his old tormentor, and a single step made the ground shake beneath their feet.

"Nah, he crushes people to death," Lancer responded as he tried to hide behind his bucket.

"Susie. I blame you entirely for this." Kris responded. "Alright guys, buckle up. We got a King to decrown."

[**Alright guys, finally finished this. I'm starting to get a bit tired of writing the overall traveling stuff, so don't be surprised when I skip over most of the Scarlet Forest's non-Susie and Lancer moments. So, thanks for reading, see ya next time, and I'm not 100% sure if this is 2 weeks apart from the last update or not. Later**]

**My mind has been turned to mush from all this post-editing. **


	7. Party Not So Full!

In front of the three heroes was a giant checker piece with the most muscular legs in all of existence. Kris could've sworn a theme was playing in the background. It had a slow start, to fill the tension, then turned into a massive exciting symphony of notes. Kris turned back to the still hiding Lancer, who had pulled a boom box out of nowhere and started playing the song.

"Of course. Well, at least the song is good." He nodded at the spade and turned back to the checker piece as soon as it tried to slam its black heel into his skull. Kris dodged it and focused on the battle in front of him. "CHECK." He looked at K. Round's description and sighed.

Wait, that's chess, not checkers!

He hated it when his CHECK didn't tell him anything important. "Ral, Susie, form up!" He called to his teammates, with varying amounts of obedience. Ralsei walked over to him and stood behind him, while Susie flipped him off and went on her own to take down K. Round. "K. ROUND! WATCH OUT FOR THE PURPLE ONE!" Kris bellowed at the opponent, but apparently his intelligence was the only thing that didn't increase when he put on the crown. Instead, it just stared at him dumbly as Susie ran to the K. Round and swung her axe with shocking speed. A crack formed where the enemy's face met violent swing. Enraged, the Darkner in front of them kicked it's leg out, sending star-like bullets flying at Kris and Ralsei. Kris quickly grabbed Ralsei and was grazed by the bullets as he sprinted out of the bullet's paths.

"Susie! Stop attacking, you're making it more violent!" Kris yelled at their purple ally. She just looked at him with a crazed look in her eye. "Good! It'll make it more fun when I cut it down!" Kris sighed, trying to form a strategy out of this disheveled mess of a fight. Kris looked up at K. Round's crown and got an idea.

"Ral, we need to bow at it. Are you with me?" Ralsei nodded vigorously, his hat bobbing along with him. "Alright. Bow!" Kris and Ralsei bowed deeply at the opponent, and with its lackluster intellect, it could only copy the gesture. Repeatedly, making the crown loosen so it would fall off. Eventually.

"I kinda expected it to fall off instantly. But, I can work with this-" Kris monologued until a certain punk dinosaur caught his eye. Susie was attempting a surprise assault on K. Round. Kris was proud of her underhanded tactics, but it would end up with all of them beaten half to death, so he had to stop her. In an instant Kris met her strike with his blade, intercepting her axe's path. Susie looked him dead in the eye with a combination of annoyance and shock. Then, she tried intimidating him.

"Get the hell out of my way before I decide to kill you too." She sneered at the human.

"Well, that wouldn't be the first dumb thing you've attempted today." Kris was immune to her fear-tactics and responded with his own sly remark. In response, she kicked him in his unguarded side, sending him tumbling to the side as she went for another swing at K. Round. The pain burned between his ribs, but Kris forced himself up and ran back to Ralsei as he tried to match up to his plan with the mutiny happening around him.

As soon as he made it close to Ralsei, stars began flying at them, cutting them like paper. Kris backed off from Ralsei and did his best to avoid the stars flying at him. It was a lot harder to dodge than you'd expect. Especially since Susie kept making it angrier and more violent. Cuts formed rapidly all over him. He saw how useless dodging was, and decided to use his gauntlets to guard his face. He really wished he had learned how to defend from Ralsei when he had the chance.

It took a small eternity, but the dashing white sparks eventually stopped flying at them. Kris immediately ran to Ralsei.

"Ral! Are you okay?" He asked as he went to him. Little wisps of smoke were being emitted from his fur, and small cuts were suddenly all over his blouse. "Y...yes, I'm fine. What's the plan, Kris?" He asked, looking straight into the blue human's eyes. Or, space they were supposed to be, at least.

"The plan is for you to bow at K. Round whenever he stops firing at you. I'll join you whenever I can, but I'll be busy keeping Susie from making this worse." Kris made that up on the spot, but Ralsei still agreed to his plan._ '__He has way too much faith in my stupid plans_,' Kris thought as he and Ralsei went for their second bow. As soon as Kris spotted the flashing red of K. Round, he scanned and found Susie trying the same trick twice. He kicked off the ground and had parried Susie's swing before she knew he was there. She tried to kick him again, but he wasn't about to fall for the same trick a second time. Instead, he caught her leg before it reached him, and lashed out at her other leg. She fell down like a house of cards, and only then did Susie point out the giant heel coming for Kris' skull. Still gripping her axe, she used the shaft to smack Kris square in the back and send him flying out of the way. He cursed quickly, then noticed the giant heel taking up the space he had been in only seconds before.

"Thanks, Susie." He muttered angrily right before he ran back to meet up with Ralsei. They caught K. Round's attention and bowed as deeply as they could without falling over. K. Round mirrored them, and its crown hit the ground with a satisfying clink. "Oh thank god." Kris sighed as he watched K. Round return to its C. Round form and roll off somewhere. At that moment, Kris let himself fall onto his back and relax. Oh, and scream out in pain as he irritated all his injuries. Ralsei immediately went to his side and began muttering a healing spell for him. And one for Susie. And one last one for himself.

"Ah, thanks Ral," Kris said after Ralsei had finished all his magical caretaking. Lancer, the cowardly spade, suddenly hopped out from behind his bucket. "Whoa! You guys beat that guy? That's so cool!" He kept going on and on with praise about how they were so cool and strong to defeat the guy he brought to kill them. Susie, however, ate it up like she eats everything else.

"Yeah, I'm definitely badass. Don't know how those two would've got past it without my help." Kris instantly knew some shit had been thrown but was unable to stop the backlash.

"_Excuse me?" _Ralsei said, with disdain filling his voice. Kris wanted to try and mediate, but his mouth was welded shut. He couldn't even move to cover his ears or avoid the conversation entirely. It was as if he could hear a voice in his head, telling him that _if_ _he wanted to befriend these people so badly, at least deal with their squabbles._

"You're excused." A rude laugh broke free of her lips and scattered across the plain they sat in. "What is it, Ral? Jealous of _my _victory?"

"_Your victory?_ Susie, I'm sorry, but this is where I draw the line." Ralsei stood up and looked Susie dead in the eye. When one was sitting and the other stood, they could see eye to eye. So, of course, Susie had to get the physical advantage.

"Ok, sure. What's this line you're drawing for?"

"Susie, you did nothing to help in that fight! In fact, you just made everything worse for everyone! You've been doing this since you've gotten here."

Susie snorted at Ralsei's words. "Oh really? Name 3 times I've done that." Those were the poorest choice of words imaginable.

"First, you beat up a bunch of people for no reason!" Ralsei started, but Susie cut her excuse in.

"Hey, those people were my enemies! They attacked me first, they were asking for it!"

"You also ate some poor guys cake." Susie was silent for a second. Then, with a confident smile, she said, "Cakes are my enemy as well."

Ralsei gave her a look that cut right through her bullshit.

"And, you've constantly been going against Kris' orders since you've gotten here for no reason!"

"Hey, I'm not letting some freak tell me what to do!"

"Kris is no freak!" Ralsei yelled back at her. "In fact, he's the closest thing to a hero I've ever seen. He's kind, and listens to people, including me!" Kris didn't know how to feel with Ralsei complimenting him like that. He could only work out that he didn't dislike it.

Ralsei huffed and tried to calm down. "Susie, whether you like it or not, you're a hero. That's the role you _have _to play. Can you please... act like you're worthy of it?" A tense silence filled the air as Ralsei looked at Susie with a mixture of irritation and disappointment. It hurt to look at his gaze, and Kris had no part in this. He couldn't imagine how piercing Ralsei's harsh gaze would be to Susie. Then, as if snapped out of a trance, Susie spoke.

"You're right." The shock of hearing Susie agree with anyone gave Ralsei a questioning look. "I'm a terrible hero. So, I'll change."

She stomped towards them, and Ralsei was about to say something positive until she walked past them to Lancer. "I'll be a bad guy instead."

"What?" Kris and Ralsei responded at once. Lancer, however, took this news more positively. "Really?! Oh boy, I'd be glad to have you on my side!" Susie herself seemed surprised at that fact. Then, she had a giant smirk on her face. "See? I'm already getting more respect than I ever got from _you_." The way she said that made Kris want to say something cutting about how respect had to be mutual. But, he was still tight-lipped, so he just took the jab.

"C'mon Lancer, let's start our evil planning." She and Lancer ran past them towards a forest filled to the brim with red leaves. And they left Kris to deal with a heartbroken Ralsei, who had slumped onto the floor.

"I... I shouldn't have said that." Ralsei stated simply. Kris felt he could open his mouth again, but the dark goat continued.

"Oh, why did I say that? I shouldn't have said anything. I should've just stayed quiet. If I had, she might not have left us-" Kris put his hand on Ralsei's shoulder, which stopped him from continuing his rant. Kris knelt down and looked Ralsei in the eye.

"Did you mean what you said?" The question shocked Ralsei, and he started to fidget with his fingers, intertwining them as he stammered an answer.

"Ral. Lying isn't going to help, and I need you to be honest with me. Remember how you scolded me for trying to get money from Lancer? Don't make me do that to you. So, be honest." Ralsei made sure he didn't look Kris in the eye and nodded shamefully. "That's fine."

"What? It's... fine?" Ralsei repeated, slightly confused.

"Yeah. What you said were your true feelings. No one can blame you for expressing your feelings. Sure, you didn't express them as... gracefully as one should, but you shouldn't apologize for how you feel. And I don't want you to force yourself to do hold back your feelings. I know how painful it is to be left behind and unable to put in your input. So, the next time you get the chance, you should apologize for _how _you said that. But, make it clear that you meant every word of what you said. Alright?" Kris met Ralsei eyes and looked deep in them. He could only see what he assumed was a pair of white pupils, but it was enough. Ralsei nodded his agreement, and Kris hoisted him upright.

"Alright then. Now, our goal as we make our way back to the Eastern Castle is to reunite the Fun Gang. Damn, that didn't last at all. Are you ready to try your best to unite this fracture team?"

Ralsei nodded seriously. "Ok then, first we high-five, then we go looking for the Dark Fun Gang." Ralsei ignored the Dark Fun Gang part, and just gave Kris a high five for good luck.

"Alright, time to... DAMMIT, WE ALREADY HAVE TO FIND SUSIE AGAIN?!" Kris yelled into the dark abyss as he realized they'd have to go looking for a dinosaur again.

*** The power of hunting down teammates shines within you!**

[**Alright, just finished writing this, glad you guys are enjoying this, just be warned that I'm really going to skim the Scarlet Forest's puzzles like I don't have any patience for that. Which I don't. Anyways, see you guys tomorrow, thanks for reading, and sorry this one was so short. It just doesn't feel right to shove anything else into this chapter. So, yeah. It'll be longer next time. I'm sure. Because I'll do my best to shove all the bad guy encounters into one chapter so we can get all them good boss fights.**]

**I might actually go back and add some save points in the story because they're fun. Anyway, thanks for reading!**


	8. The Chronicles of the Dark Fun Gang

About three minutes after the Fung Gang had their unfortunate break up, Kris and Ralsei ran into their nemeses, who had their backs turned to them.

"Well well well." Susie tutted at her old teammates, giving off a really strong feeling that she practiced that. In 3 minutes. "Seems you Clowns aren't as cowardly as you look." For some reason, Lancer calling Kris a coward irked him in a way he didn't quite understand. To subside his urge to knock some sense into that mushy looking spade, Kris looked at all the red leaves surrounding them all. It didn't help.

"You should know if you come any further..." Susie continued, with Lancer chiming in. "You'll have to go against **US**!"

Reaching into the black mist, Susie summoned her axe and raised above her head.

"Violent Axe Susie!" Kris put his hands to his mouth. "More like violet axe." He called out his fellow Lightner. Susie made a face but otherwise ignored him. Lancer went and posed next to Susie. "Dark Spade Lancer!"

"And together we are-" They both started to speak in unison, both with childlike grins as they went along. "The Dark Fun Gang." Kris couldn't help but ruin it. Susie groaned and turned to him. "Hey! We aren't using that name!" Kris looked her dead in her annoyed yellow eyes. "So what's your team name then?" Susie opened her mouth to respond, then turned back to Lancer. "What _was _our team name again?" The goofy spade only shrugged in response.

"Well, I guess you guys are the Dark Fun Gang now," Kris said simply, then forced himself not to chuckle. He was having way too much fun messing with them. Lancer hopped over to Susie and looked up at her. "Ooh! Can we have monogrammed biker jackets with The Dark Fun Gang on them?!" Seeing Lancer's excitement, Susie didn't have the will to say no. "Sure, we'll get Ralsei to make em."

"Oh! Sure, Susie." Ralsei agreed immediately. "Is there anything else you guys wanted to say?" He asked, trying to bring up his apology. The Dark Fun Gang were completely immune to his social tact, however. "Nah, we should go and work on our evil plans. C'mon Lancer, let's prepare." The two bad guys then ran off deeper into the Scarlet Forest. "Well, maybe you'll have time to apologize in our next encounter," Kris reassured his friend with a nudge in the arm. "Now, let's go before I start getting sick of the color red."

Kris had already been sick of red for the past five minutes when they ran into Susie and Lancer again. They were surrounding a stump and were licking their fingers clean. Or, claws in Susie's case. Possibly. Kris wasn't an expert on monsterology. Kris and Ralsei walked up to the two finger-lickers and asked what they were eating. Susie paused her assault on the stump's mystery meal and looked at them. "Only one way to find out." She smirked and moved out of the way for them to try. Ralsei looked at Kris, and he responded with a shrug as he went to the stump. He put his hand in and felt something mushy and cold. He grabbed some in his hands and brought it into his mouth. Light spice and sweet tomato filled his tastebuds.

"Huh. It's salsa. It's good, but could use more spice." He criticized it but finished the mixture left on his fingers. "You should try it Ral."

Ralsei hesitated, and Kris just said, "You don't have to do it." For some reason, that spurred Ralsei on to try the salsa. He stuck his fingers into the sauce and ate it. His eyes light up when he tasted the sweetness. "Wow! It's really good, where'd you get this?" Ralsei asked the other two. Susie shrugged, and Lancer responded. "My Lesser Dad got it for me. Said something about not eating like a peasant or whatever and gave me some. So, I saved it in this here stump. That's where I got it!"

"Oh." Ralsei had a look of disappointment but quickly changed it. "It's fine though. Just asking." A silence fell upon them, and no one knew how to break it. "Did... your Lesser Dad not have chips with this?" Kris asked.

"Nah, chips always get stuck in my teeth, so I don't eat em." The Dark Spade responded. More silence. "Well, time to go back to working on our evil plans! Later losers!" Susie said and ran off while carrying Lancer with her like a purse.

"... We're all really bad at small talk, aren't we." Kris said as he was left with Ralsei. The Dark Prince nodded. "Wanna finish off the salsa and hit the trail?" Ralsei nodded again.

With stomachs filled with sweet tomato goodness, the two heroes walked off and found themselves with the bad guys once more. They were standing with a blueprint on a stand, right next to another puzzle. It was a symbol switching puzzle. "At least it isn't the tiles again," Kris said, and he went up to the blue bricked wall to solve the puzzle. "Man, the blue is a sharp contrast to all the red here, huh?" He said, trying to make small talk as he did the puzzle. Every just sort of mumbled some halfhearted agreement. "Good talk, guys." He responded as the spikes to the right of them retracted with a click. "Yeah, later Blueberry," Susie said as she and Lancer ran off again. "We probably should've told them we finished the salsa."

"Yeah." Ralsei agreed with Kris. "Alright, I guess we just keep walking. Man, my legs are going to be numb after this." Kris and Ralsei walked off, and Kris did his best to make some small talk along the way. Mostly by embarrassing Ralsei. It was extremely hard to resist when his reactions were so... cute.

After lots of puzzle-solving and avoiding enemies, Kris and Ralsei found themselves at another puzzle. Kris cursed under his breath. "Can there be any variety in this Kingdom?! It's all either timed tiles or symbol matching! Oho, and it gets even better! This time, the examples are all scratched out. Just great! Ugh, I need a nap." Kris quickly burned through all his annoyance. Then he spotted, out of the corner of his eye, a dark hole in the red ground.

He walked over to it and a giant, pale head with an extensive, noodle-like neck popped out. Ralsei jumped at the sudden appearance of the Darkner, yet Kris didn't seem to react at all. "Hey. Y'know what the answer to the puzzle was?" Kris tilted his head to the puzzle in the center of the area, and the monster looked at him. It had three black lines spreading out from its nose to it's three lavender eyes. And really sharp teeth that were also purple.

"Ummm... The first one was a heart. That's all I have. Good luck!" Then, the Darkner just sunk back into the hole it emerged from, despite its huge head. It was almost comical to watch as it went back in so easily. "Thank you." Kris and Ralsei both responded as the pale monster retracted into the ground. Kris looked around again, as there were still two other slots to fill in the puzzle. He spotted more dark holes and decided to see what else he could find out.

When he approached the second hole, another head popped out. Except, this one had a sour look on her face.

"NONE OF THE SYMBOLS WERE THE SAME, NOW LEAVE ME ALONE!" She shouted as she retreated to her little hole. Kris had been blown back, physically, by the outburst. Ralsei had his glasses and hat knocked askew, which he fixed back to their natural position. Kris brushed off his shirt as he looked back at the hole. "Rude." He said and walked back to the other hole. Hoping the one in there was more mellow. She was, by a far margin.

"Um... The puzzle didn't have any clubs. Sorry." She said and slunk back into her hole. Kris and Ralsei looked at each other, and put their hands to their mouths to make what they said reach farther. "No, it's fine. You helped." Kris said simply.

"Yes, what Kris said. Thanks for the assistance!" Ralsei muttered cheerily.

The two heroes nodded to each other as they walked over to finish the puzzle. Or, more accurately, Kris solved the puzzle and Ralsei gave him encouraging vibes from the sidelines. When Kris finished the puzzle, he and Ralsei walked over to the newly-opened exit. But, as they walked three familiar faces appeared out of nowhere and ran after them.

"Hey, it's our birthday! YOU BETTER HAVE GOTTEN US SOMETHING! It's fine if you didn't..." The Cerberus said all at once. Kris drew his blade defensively, with Ralsei behind him. He quickly checked the Darkner before them. He turned back to the Dark Prince. "Hey, Ralsei, what did that one Rudinn say about Clover's birthday?" Ralsei looked back at him and pushed his glasses closer to his face. "Um... they like trees, sports and... boys."

Kris nodded his thanks and turned back to the Clovers. "Hey, what's your opinion on boys?" Kris asked.

"Glasses are cute! FLUFFY, GLASSES, THAT'S IT! Him? Eh, sure." They all responded. Kris looked back at Ralsei. He had a plan. Although, it was pretty embarrassing to Ralsei. Then, clubs appeared around them. They all suddenly fired triple streams of bullets at the two of them. Kris and Ralsei both danced around the deadly objects easily. "You're getting used to dodging, huh?" Kris asked Ralsei. He smiled and nodded at him, his dark fur bobbing along with him. "As long it isn't too complicated, I think I can avoid most bullets." Kris chuckled.

He rubbed the top of Ralsei's head. "Good work." Ralsei blushed but didn't move away from the congratulatory head patting. "And, sorry about this."

"Huh?" Ralsei responded, but was put into a one-armed hug as Kris summoned the Manual from his inventory. "Hey, you wanna hear what are this glasses-wearing, fluffy, adorable goat wrote?" "W-wait! Don't read it to them!" The Clovers walked over to them as Kris and Ralsei sat down. Kris opened the manual to the first page and focused on one sentence at a time to read the book. It quickly went extremely in-depth about how to avoid bullets and the possible effects. Kris let the Clovers tell him when to turn the page. He found himself waiting eagerly for the signal to read more, as it was cutesy and sweet that he was quickly addicted. At the end of the book, there was a crude drawing of Ralsei and a big heart. The page said, "Thank you for reading! I'm glad to have met you!" Kris immediately felt guilty for everything he had ever done. It was like the words on that page were tugging on his heartstrings. The Clovers all gave Ralsei compliments on how nice he was. "Actually, let's stop fighting. YEAH, THE THOUGHT OF HURTING YOU MAKES ME SICK! Y-you're invited to our party in the Castle. Remember, 4th floor, the room with a club at the top."

Clover walked away and left Kris and a Ralsei sitting on the ground. "Wow, this is my first time being spared," Kris commented and looked at his friend. His blush bled through his fur, and he wouldn't look him in the eyes. "Ral... I'm sorry for embarrassing you in front of Clover. And for showing them the manual you made for me and Susie. Can you forgive me?" He asked him and tried to get him to look at Kris' eyes. Ralsei sighed.

"Ok... I forgive you." Kris pulled Ralsei into a hug, thinking how easy the Prince forgives when he gets stared at. He put his head on Ralsei's shoulder and could feel the heat of his embarrassment. But, he didn't try to run from the hug. In fact, he began to hug back. Kris felt strangely drowsy out of nowhere. He let himself tetter on the edge of sleep, then left Ralsei's embrace. "Sorry, I was about to fall asleep." He said as he helped Ralsei back up. He didn't say anything, just blushed as he took Kris's hand.

They walked forward, into a bake sale. Kris decided to sit to the side and saved.

**The Angel**

**Bake Sale**

He got up and looked at the stands before them. First, it was a Rudinn in a green stand. He walked over to the Darkner. "What are you selling?" He asked.

"Uh... a choco-diamond, I guess." It responded.

"I'll take three." A response flew out of his mouth. He ended up wasting Ralsei's money to buy some chocolate. He wished he regretted the decision, but he was already eating one of them. He then went into the pink booth with a Hathy. Kris gave it an inquisitive look, and with one of their tendrils, it pulled out a donut. He paid the same amount as he and for a single choco-diamond and handed the donut to Ralsei. He obviously loved it, with the sounds of enjoyment he emitted as he chewed the donut. Kris then walked to the booth on the far right, with Lancer and Susie.

"Care for a cookie, Blueberry, and Toothpaste?" Lancer asked, which made Susie swing her head back laughing. "Aha! You do look like toothpaste." Ralsei sighed in response.

"Sure, I guess," Kris said in response to the cookie question. "All proceeds go to kicking your ass," Susie said as he was passed a donut. The two bad guys then ran off to the booth next to them. They quickly bought themselves a donut and then tried to decide how to split it.

Kris instead wandered around and ended up in front of what looked to be a red squeaky hammer. He looked at them judgementally, then it's yellow eyes widened as he noticed something. "You! Lightner! That broken cake you have there... I must fix it! Give it to me!" His passion was extremely annoying, so Kris complied. The hammer then banged his head onto the cake over and over, until it had become a regular cake again. The hammer huffed as he gave them the cake back. Ralsei thanked him, then he and Kris began to walk away when he began to talk about fixing them as well. Kris wasn't sure what type of 'fixing' he meant, but he wasn't about to find out.

After avoiding several spinning objects and stealing their fair share of treasure from chests, Kris and Ralsei ended up in an area with a poorly disguised Lancer boohooing. Then, he noticed the two of them were there, and he slid towards them.

"Oh, could it be? Finally, I've found heroes who could help me! Oh, would you two strangers I've never met before help a sweet little boy such as myself?" Kris and Ralsei glanced at each other.

"Um... What do you need help with?" Ralsei asked the mustachioed Lancer. "I need to make an evil robot!"

"...Why?" Kris asked, dumbfounded. Lancer looked at him. "To impress my cool new friend Susie!"

"..Kris, if it's for friendship.." Damn it, of course, friendship would be his weakness. Kris complied.

"Alright, you two buckaroos, I need you two to design a robot on that poster." He pointed to a poster held up by an aisle. Kris shrugged and went over to it. Suddenly, menu music came from nowhere. And by nowhere, he meant Lancer's boom box. Kris saw several options. Since it was obviously going to be a robot they were going to end up fighting, he decided to make it something that looked good on paper, but would absolutely fail in practice.

He gave it sneakers, made it's the body a literal wheel, and gave it a sword for a face. It wasn't a Mettaton EX, but it would do. When Kris finished designing the robot, he moved to the side for the others to see. "Oho! It looks great! Are you sure you aren't evil." Kris was really tempted to just give him a plain no, but apparently that was his limit. "No, he just has a knack for this," Ralsei said. Kris decided to take that as a compliment.

Suddenly, a wild Susie appeared in the tall bush! She ran over to the poster. "Aha! You guys fell for our plan! Eheheh, it even looks kinda fast. Lancer, let's book it!" Lancer whooped as he and Susie ran off. "I'm glad Susie found a place she fits in. And she seems to enjoy hanging out with Lancer as well." Ralsei said as he indicated the bush Susie ran out of. Kris snickered, then waved for Ralsei to follow him.

After dealing with more puzzles, with more enthusiastic reactions from Kris, they found Susie and Lancer relaxing on lounge chairs, getting fanned by Rudinns.

"You lazy-" Kris started but caught himself when he realized the company he was in. The innocent Ralsei, and the literal child Lancer. "... residues..." Kris forcefully censored himself. "Why are you both just chilling?"

"Because we were waiting for you two to get here. I mean, seriously, it took you guys forever." Susie said, with a shark-toothed grin. "Well, excuse me princess, but I just wanted to make sure Ralsei and I didn't get shishcabobbed." Susie just shrugged at him. "Well, go on into the maze. We'll meet you in there." Kris was extremely exasperated with her but walked into the maze anyways.

They got lost. A lot. Enough that at one point, when Kris was sent back to the beginning again, he screamed out, "WHAT IS THIS, KAKARIKO FOREST?!" But, like the determined person he was, he kept trucking on. And, eventually, they made it out the other end.

"Let's never do that again. Agreed?" Kris asked Ralsei. "Agreed." The goat responded. They both decided to just sit and rest there for a while.

**Kris**

**Maze 3: The Reckoning**

***The pure loathing towards mazes shines withing you!**

[ **It's been more than 2 weeks since the last update. At least, it FEELS like it has been. I really planned to finish this one earlier, but I really hated writing the Clover part... For some reason. Anyways, we're throwing hands with Susie and Lancer next chapter. So, see you next update, thanks for reading, and don't forget to hit that like button and turn on notifications! _I am not sorry for that]_**

**Same old same old.**


	9. Thrashing

"The hell is that?" Kris asked when he saw a shadowy figure towering before Ralsei and him. Then he remembered that it looked exactly like the robot he had designed earlier. Cannon for a face, a wheel for a body, and sneakers. Yep, that's his robot right there.

"Oh no! It's the robot you designed. We should be getting ready for this fight, Kris." Ralsei stood next to him and glared at the robot before him. Kris began to chuckle at how 'malicious' Ralsei looked at that moment.

"Yeah, this should be..." Suddenly, a light shone above their robot, and they could see how poorly constructed it was. Crooked lines, irritating shapes, and the colors were all slightly whitewashed. As the person who designed the robot, Kris was irked seeing his creation so... poorly made.

"Oh... It's actually not that good, huh..?" Ralsei said, with an obviously disappointed expression. "Yeah..." Kris sighed, just as the robot exploded into nothing. In fact, there was no debris at all. It just ceased to exist when it exploded. Kris looked at the culprits howling with laughter. Susie calmed down and explained their actions.

"Your machine sucked so we blew it up," Susie said charismatically. Her speech check failed, however.

"It sucked?!" Kris responded with outrage. "That took me, like, seven minutes to draw up!"

"And it took thirty seconds to blow to smithereens," Lancer replied, sending Susie into another laughing fit. Kris was beginning to see a red, and it wasn't they were in the Scarlet Forest. "Anyways, we came up with a _way_ better plan than giant robots."

"And what could that be?" Ralsei asked her, which Susie responded by summoning her ax. "Glad you asked, toothpaste. Y' see, we beat you up and force you to become bad guys with us!"

"Yeah, that's our evil plan! Do you like it?" The spade asked the two soon-to-be villains. Ralsei didn't immediately respond, and Kris couldn't speak, so Susie filled in the gap. "Well, it doesn't really matter what you think, since we're gonna do it anyway." The purple dinosaur lifted her ax against her should, and Lancer stood to the left of her. Kris and Ralsei formed up in response, and Susie immediately swung her ax in front of her; she yelled out, "RUDE BUSTER!" and a light green ray of light shot out of her ax's blade, which Kris ended up barely dodging. He had a nick in his arm from the attack, but that was nothing compared to the absolute confusion the attack left him with.

"Susie. Where the hell did you learn that?! And why are you screaming your attack name?!" Kris asked angrily while dodging some of Lancer's white spades. Susie just shrugged as if that answered every question Kris had asked and charged at him, brandishing the large axe she wanted to dismember him with. Kris slowly exhaled to calm his mind and turned to Ralsei.

"Ral, sing your lullaby!" The Dark Prince, who had been busy avoiding Lancer's spades, began to sing a relaxing melody that made Kris want to curl up into the warmest spot he could find and sleep for the rest of his life. But he refused, and instead looked at the one person he knew couldn't restrain the urge. Susie had fallen asleep mid-step, and played stomach first on the ground, snoozing.

Kris turned to Lancer and blanked at how he was going to convince him not to fight. So, he got Ralsei to do it. He was surprised at first but went with it. "Lancer... Uh, if we keep fighting, someone will get hurt!" Kris could see Lancer's desire to fight falter. But, he still decided to fling bullets at the two of them. Like the absolute genius, he is. The two heroes scattered as the spades came flying at them. Kris and Ralsei got out with only a couple of scrapes. Kris asked Ralsei to keep convincing Lancer.

"Why don't we just... be friends and stop fighting?" Ralsei pleaded with Lancer, whose resolve was turning brittle. Then, Susie woke up with a giant yawn that would put anyone else's to shame. "What did I miss?" She asked, then her eyes widened when she remembered what was happening. She then sprinted once more at Kris, who didn't have time to order Ralsei to keep singing. He raised his sword up to meet with Susie's swing with a clang. He could still feel the vibrations from the blow run through his arms as Susie went for a hilt smash against his skull. In an instant, Kris had kicked out his own leg to get out of the axe's path, and he rolled away from Susie on the forest floor. He quickly got up and ended up with bits of red leaves all over his shirt and armor. Truly, the look of a hero.

"Hehehe..." Susie grinned villainously as she leaned the axe on her back. "Just give up Kris. You can't beat us. May as well join us in evil." She held out a scaly hand in partnership. Kris looked up at her and saw that she wasn't planning anything. No mischievous stare, no barely contain laughter, nothing at all. He sighed and took her hand. "Welcome to the team." She said cockily.

"Funny, I was going to say that to you in a bit," Kris responded with a grin only a trickster could make.

"RAL! LULLABY!" He called out, and Ralsei immediately began to sing. Susie hadn't had enough time to try anything, so all she could do was give him a dirty look as her droopy eyelids fell down and she began to fall over towards Kris. "Oh sh-" Kris was then crushed by the most punk-looking Barney replica imaginable. Well, at least she provided good cover for Lancer's bullets. As in he wouldn't let any spades go anywhere near Susie.

"Ral. Finish him off with kindness." Kris mumbled as he was getting smothered by the bulky dinosaur's sleeping body. Ralsei nodded and looked to Lancer's chubby frame. "All in all... I think we should all just try and get along, no matter what team we're on!" He said, and Lancer gave in to the sweetness of the Fun Gang.

"Susie..." He said slowly like a kid does when he did something bad. Apparently, it was enough to rouse the sleeping beast that had begun to crush Kris' ribs. "Wh- WHY THE HELL AM I ON TOP OF YOU?!" She yelled at the top of her lungs and pushed herself up off the ground.

"Hey, It's not my fault people throw themselves onto me." Kris joked as he got himself up. Susie sighed gruffly and looked to Lancer. "What is it, man?"

"I think I accidentally started liking our opponents..." He answered, looking down at his feet. Susie rolled her eyes and tousled the top of his head.

"Well, I guess we should stop fighting, then." Kris whooped in victory, and Ralsei began healing himself and Kris. The only ones to sustain any injuries in the entire bout. Kris sat down and leaned onto his hands. "So... Does that mean you guys have to join the Fun Gang?"

"What?" Susie asked him, still standing. "I mean... sure, I guess."

"You know what that means?" Kris asked her condescendingly. Her yellow eyes widened in realization.

"Don't you dare-"

"Que the fanfare!" Ralsei and Lancer responded as a tone shone from within Kris. He chuckled at Susie's obvious frustration, but then he suddenly stopped. And, you guessed it, it wasn't from his own volition! So, he just waited like a statue for the song to end.

"Welcome back to the team, Violet," Kris said simply, as he got up from Ralsei's healing spell. Susie grumbled under her breath but returned the greeting. "Yeah, well, hope you didn't miss me too much."

"Glad to have you back, Susie!" Ralsei added in, his natural warmth filling in the spaces of their conversation. But, it was a key moment there. Susie gave him the most emotionless gaze they'd ever seen on her. Even with the little input he had, Kris could tell this response will make or break their team. Then, she turned her back to both of them, and Ralsei, in turn, looked down at the leaves beneath his feet. "Well, seems you can appreciate how great I am now." She said in her usual gruff and overconfident manner. But, it was accepting Ralsei's unsaid apology. And he beamed as he felt Susie's personal brand of forgiveness.

"Wow, you have more tact then I thought, Violet," Kris responded, ruining the moment. Susie made a face at Kris but otherwise ignored him. Then, Lancer spoke up a bit. "Uh... can I join you guys too?"

Everyone turned to the little bad guy before them. Then, they turned to Kris.

"... What? He's _Susie's_ friend, so it's her call." He effortlessly pushed the responsibility to the reformed bad guy. Lancer made a pleading face at her. "O-Of course you can join us!" Susie said quickly.

Lancer beamed at Susie, and a big dopey grin formed on his face. "Ahahaha! Lancer joins the party!" Kris's soul began to chime the fanfare again. He felt like their personal jukebox at that point, so he did his best to cut the song short. "Alright, alright, enough party members. Let's head over to the castle already."

Kris walked off to the east, where he could see the castle long in the distance. He turned behind him to see Lancer just standing where he left him. "Hey, Lancer!" He called to him. "Are you coming with us?"

"Oh! I'll go a different way, don't worry!" He called the three heroes. Kris shrugged, and off the three of them went. With Susie's plus one walking off to the side of them.

"So, Susie, where did you learn Rude Buster?" Kris asked as the walked towards their final destination.

"Lancer taught me when I asked. I didn't want to have an area of combat I couldn't wreak havoc in." Susie answered, with the blue human nodding to it. "Well, if anyone could teach you how to use magic, it'd be the guy that made it rain bullets. It'll also be great for our team composition."

"What do you mean, Kris?" Ralsei chipped in. "Well, you're the mage Ral, the one who heals us and helps put people to sleep. Susie is our, for lack of a better term, berserker who dishes and takes damage. A powerful magic bullet is something that our team needed desperately, as it gives us more range." Kris said, his mind focused on planning and strategy.

"And I'll be the team mascot then!" Lancer chirped from off to the side. "Yeah, that's fair," Kris responded.

"And what's your job, Kris?" Ralsei asked, tilting his head at him. A smirk grew on his face as he turned to the rest of them.

"I'm the strategist and leader. The most important position." His ego was revealing itself at that moment, but he quickly stifled it as he turned back forward to continue their trek. They all began to talk to fill in some time. It wasn't anything important, just meaningless nonsense. But, it was the best way to kill time and ensure Susie doesn't go rouge a third time.

They all stopped when they saw the castle. It towered in the distance, filled with dark grays and purples. Around all the spires were cards and their symbols. And at the top, was the second Dark Fountain. Darkness flowing upwards, until it reached a point in the sky where it flowed outwards, covering the sky in a magical blackness deeper and more beautiful than any other.

"God, the Dark World is beautiful," Kris said softly while he has entranced in the Fountains inky darkness.

"Yeah, it is! Dad always said he loved the view!" Lancer said, hopping in front of Kris. "Blueberry, you have good taste." Kris unconsciously grits his teeth. The name pissed him off more than it should. "No matter what... my dad... says..." Lancer began to trail off, and he too became entranced in the fountain. But, his gaze broke and he turned to the others.

"Guys... I have to go." Susie looked at him. "Sure, when are you coming back?"

"... Never." He then slid across the ground with impossible speed. Susie looked back at him in shock, and ran after him, calling at him to wait and come back. Ralsei ran after both of them, telling them to wait. And Kris ran after the lot of them, to ensure they didn't get themselves shot by the castle guards.

As soon as he got on the shadowy path to the castle's entrance, Darkners started shooting diamond-shaped bullets at him as he ran after his team. He dodged easily, as they came at a manageable speed. He caught a look at the guards and checked them as he ran from them. Rudinn Ranger was their name, and they were just regular Rudinn's but purple and had a helmet.

Kris easily caught up to the others but watched helplessly as Lancer locked himself in the castle with Susie banging on the doors to let them in. When the human approached, a multitude of Rudinn Rangers surrounded them and made an unescapable bullet circle around them. Kris reflexively drew his sword. He planned to cut through enough bullets to avoid his friend's impalement and to knock out the rest of the guards. It was stupid, but it was better than dying.

He had barely taken a step forward when Ralsei began to mutter something and he felt extremely sleepy. The circle was closing in on them, but instead of defending himself and the others, he just fell down on his knees as he struggled to keep conscious. He felt a thud near him which told him Susie had fallen asleep. At last, Kris couldn't hold out against the tiredness taking over his mind. So, he collapsed next to Susie and slept deeply.

***The power of _ZZZZZZZ _shines a bit too brightly!**

[**Hey guys, finished another chapter. Not gonna lie, I was kind of putting off writing this. Just me procrastinating, but I finally got off my ass. Anyways, hope you enjoyed, don't forget to favorite the story so you don't miss out when I upload since my schedule is more like a random deadline. Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you next update.**]

**I miss being able to sleep.**


	10. Cages And Keys

Kris regained consciousness next to Ralsei in a dark prison. It was all drenched in dreary purples and blacks, and the iron bars in front of him didn't help with the hopeless feeling that the place gave him. He still felt drowsy from the fight outside the castle, so he turned to the cause of his abrupt napping.

"Ral, why did you Pacify me?" He said immediately to the dark bundle of fur he leaned against. Ralsei turned back to look at Kris and sighed. "Because there wasn't a way out of that situation. I didn't want you guys getting hurt for no reason."

"Y'know, if I had woken up as soon as I had the energy, I'd probably be super mad at you. But, my laziness let me realize that was the best move to make at that moment. Sorry for being reckless." Kris said slowly, as he did his best to get himself up. The Pacify spell was supposed to coax people who were sleepy to rest. It also apparently made the target really drowsy after the fact. He used Ralsei's shoulder as a way to get back up. "But, try talking me out of being reckless _before_ you sedate me." He gave Ral a sideways grin as he got up.

His legs shook slightly, but he still stood upright. "Found any way out of here?" He asked Ralsei as he examined their shared cage. Ralsei shook his head. "I didn't look because you were still asleep, and what good would it do to find a way out while my leader is still asleep for an indefinite amount of time?"

"Wait, _indefinite_? So, you didn't know how long until I would wake up?" Kris asked, and Ralsei nodded. "So, how long have I been out?" Ralsei waited for a minute or two as he tried to figure out the answer. "Sorry, I can't really tell. No clocks in the dungeon and all."

"Man, my mom's gonna kill me when I get back home..." Kris mumbled as he went searching around his cell. He found a crack in a wall, but when he tried breaking it open, he just found a sturdier wall behind it. "Alright, the crack is a dead end." He informed Ralsei, who was just sitting there, calm and collected.

Kris went over to examine the shackles hanging from the wall that was most likely supposed to be on the two of them. They didn't seem all too useful, so he left them hanging. His stomachs began to growl. He realized that the only thing he had eaten since breakfast was the Dark Candy from the Field of Hopes and Dreams. "Damn, that was two zones ago." He said as he pats his stomachs, then turned to a corner that had less dark colors than the others.

He walked over to a piece of moss in the corner, and the water dripping from the ceiling. If he thought too hard about it, he wouldn't eat it. So, he decided to take a philosophical way to force-feed himself.

'_The world is a cycle, where consumption is necessary to survive. Even moss must absorb water to survive. Will I perpetuate the cycle_?' He asked himself as he picked up the bit of moss. He agreed as he tossed it in his mouth. It had the texture of watery bread and tasted exactly like how he smelled. It didn't fill his stomach, but something else. He chuckled when he realized he could make a joke. "I guess I was mossed out."

The jokes sounded better in his head, where it should've stayed. He walked back over to his strangely calm friend. "Ral, I don't think there's a way out of here." The black goat turned to him. "What's that green stuff on the corner of your mouth?"

"Ah... moss." He admitted reluctantly. Ralsei gave him a look of disapproval. "Well, I guess we just have to wait here until something changes." He said as he looked back to the bars of their prison. Kris sat beside him and noticed his sitting position. "Why do you sit on your heels?"

"Oh!" He said in surprise. "Kris, you ask the most random and irrelevant questions."

"Yeah. I'm easily distracted." He responded simply. "In any case, this is the seating position all royalty must use. I learned it from an etiquette book in my kingdom!" Ralsei told him, with his usual cheeriness. "Do... you read a lot of books?"

"Yes! Everything I know is from lots of studying of my kingdoms library!" Ralsei told him, his normal smile back on his face. "Wow, there must be a lot of books there. Probably even more than the amount in the library in the Light World." Kris said automatically, and only caught the tail end of the sentence. 'Wait. There's a library in town?' He asked himself.

"Really?" Ralsei looked at Kris with a shine of excitement in his eyes, which was amplified by his glasses. "I've never been to another library before! Do you think I could visit it one day?" Kris wanted to say he couldn't, since his entire existence is based on darkness, and he had no idea what the sun would do to the shadow-formed kid in front of him. But, the look of pure joy and excitement cut through him like a dagger. "S-sure Ralsei." A huge grin broke through his dark face. "Thank you, Kris."

"Oh my god, will you two stop flirting so loud?!" A gruff voice called from the other side of one of the walls next to them. It made Ralsei jump, while Kris just turned to the voice's origin. "Susie, were you listening in the entire time?"

"Unwillingly, yes." She responded. "Anyways, I have a guard's key, but my door still won't open." Kris did a quick double-take. "How did you get a guards key?"

"Uh, I invited him to garbage land. He didn't have enough money for a ticket, so he traded the keys instead."

"... Susie, is there a giant puzzle anywhere in your cell?" Kris asked her slowly.

"Yeah." Susie could hear what sounded like the loudest slap in existence from the other side of the stone wall. "Susie, solve the damn puzzle," Kris said angrily at his idiotic teammate.

"I can't. The puzzle doesn't give me the options for the symbols on top." Another slap was heard by Susie. They all then spent an annoyingly long amount of time trying to help Susie with the puzzle. Finally, Susie had been freed from her cage. She went over to Kris and Ralsei's caged, and tried to use the keys she had received on the lock.

"Of course the keys don't work. These are the most useless keys I've ever seen in my life." Kris complained in the cage.

"Susie, try finding Lancer. He'll probably have the a key." Ralsei offered, and Susie nodded as she left them behind to find the Dark Spade. And also the keys. Though, now the two heroes were left to twiddle their thumbs as they waited for their teammate to save them.

Susie walked down the hallway to the rest of the cages in Lancer's castle. There was a pair of floating eyes in a cage to her left that she tried her best to ignore. The dungeon gave her an extreme amount of bad feelings. But, then she faintly heard her little buddy's down the hallway. She began to ran towards him but was blocked by another puzzle. She groaned. Susie needed the keys from Lancer, but she had a less than stellar track record when it came to puzzles.

But, she needed to see her friend. She wanted to know why he said he'd never come back. So, she breathed in deeply and did her best to solve the puzzle in front of her. A huge weight lifted off her chest when the gate to the rest of the hallway clicked and retracted. She was beginning to understand why Kris hated those puzzles so much.

As the gate gave way, Susie heard her friend talking to a guard. He had his back turned to her.

"Alright, make sure those guys never get out. Especially the purple one."

"You mean that one, Prince?" The Rudinn Ranger pointed his dagger at Susie. Lancer turned, and a guilty look flashed across his face. "Leave." He told the Rudinn Ranger, who obeyed unthinkingly. Lancer gave Susie the look of a kid who had been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Susie shook her head and went on with what she wanted to ask him.

"Lancer, I need the key to free the others. Do you know where they are? Or at least who ordered us to be locked up?"

"... _I _gave the order to capture you guys. I can't let you near the Dark Fountain." Susie gave him such a betrayed look that Lancer questioned what he had done for a split second.

"I see... Of course you did this. I mean, who'd actually want to be friends with _me?!_" Susie knocked her head back and began to laugh like a maniac.

"Susie, that's not-"

"Shut up." Susie smiled at him as she walked towards him.

"It's not wh-"

**"SHUT UP!"** She yelled as her axe appeared in her hands.

"I think it's time you figured out what happens to traitors." Susie then bashed the side of his head with the flat of the axe's blade. Lancer made no move to avoid the attack, but he sent some bullets to ward her off. They barely grazed her.

"You missed..." Susie said slowly, and a sharp grin forced its way onto her face. "Fine, be that way." She charged him and knocked him to the ground. He instinctively shot out spades, but he made sure none of them hit her.

"Fine! If you want to die so badly... " She raised her axe above her.

"**THEN DIE!**" Her axe came arcing down. Lancer closed his eyes and desperately put his hands up to defend himself. And he forced his eyes open when he heard the sound of iron scrap against the stone. Susie's axe was embedded into the stone floor next to him.

"Y... you missed," Lancer said, his voice shaking. And he saw Susie's yellow eyes from underneath her wild mane of hair. There was moisture in them.

"Lancer... I can't kill you man. Just please... let us go." She looked straight at him, her face giving him the one look that he'd never imagined her having. A pleading gaze.

"I... I can't Susie. If I do, you'll fight my dad. And... and..." He began to shake as much as his voice was. He began sniffling. "You'll kill each other..." His display of sadness rocked Susie to the core. She looked away from him, and sighed. "I promise we'll just talk to him."

Lancer looked straight at her. "R-really?!"

"Yeah. I mean, those losers wouldn't let me kill him even if I wanted to. So don't worry. No one will die today." She promised him, and he began to wipe his face. "O.. okay. Thank you."

"Oh! I'll go tell my dad you guys are coming to talk. I'll see you at the top!" Lancer got up and slide off to his father. "Wait! How do I open the cage?!"

"Use the axe!" Lancer said as he went off out of sight. Susie looked back at the axe stuck in the cold stone floor. Then she mimicked the slap he had heard from Kris' cage.

One broken door later the Fun Gang was completely reunited. While Susie mocked Kris for not thinking of using the axe earlier, they headed up to the one thing Kris feared.

"Why does it have to be an elevator?" Kris asked the one he knew was watching. He didn't responded, so Kris walked into the elevator with his teammates. They hit the button for ground floor and sat down as they were lifted up the castle.

"So, this is the final stretch, huh?" Susie said, leaning against the elevator walls. Ralsei sat in his obviously uncomfortable position once more, while Kris was slumped over like an empty husk.

"Yeah, we're going back home after we make it there," Kris said as he did his best to fight off flashes of previous elevator rides. He'd much rather fall down a mountain than ride up an elevator for a couple of floors.

"Yeah... I guess this is the end of our adventure, huh?" Ralsei said quietly. A glance was shared between Kris and Susie. "Well, remember your promise about baking us some cakes? You better not think we're just going to let you off the hook, Ral."

Ralsei looked up at Kris, then smiled. "Yeah, don't worry. When you come back, I'll make as many cakes as you want."

Susie coughed, drawing her teammates' gaze to her. "Hey... could I have some of those cakes two?" She asked shyly. Ralsei giggled at her apparent discomfort. "As long as you don't abandon us again, sure!"

Susie crossed her arms and turned her head the other way. "Yeah yeah, wasn't planning on it." Kris chuckled as he felt a pain in his heart. The flashes were getting harder to avoid. He began to breathe erratically. He clutched his shirt as he forced himself to calm down. Flashes of golden flowers and white liquid abominations filled his mind.

"Kris?" Susie and Ralsei both asked him. "Why are you freaking out?" Susie asked him bluntly.

"What's wrong?" Ralsei asked. Kris tried to focus on the two of them, and his breathing slowed a bit. "I... hate elevators..."

A glance was shared by Kris' teammates, and they both scooted next to him. It surprised him that even Susie agreed to it. "T...thanks guys." His flashes were becoming weaker as he realized things were different. He had some friends alongside him this time. He suddenly realized how lonely traveling through the Underground had been. Randomly encountering monsters who wanted you dead, and only meeting people who cared for his wellbeing sporadically. He may have had friends then, but he'd wanted some friends to travel alongside him.

"Hey... Kris." He looked at his reptilian companion. "Uh... I think I'll listen to your orders from now on. But don't tell me to do anything weird, alright!"

He scoffed, "Alright Susie. No weird ACTs. I got it."

***Susie joined the team, for real this time**

As they came to this agreement, the elevator stopped moving. Kris suddenly found his center and could breathe again. Everyone got up, and while Susie and Ralsei began to leave the elevator, Kris noticed something. "Guys, there's another option on the selector thing." The others turned back at Kris, and moved over to him.

"But there isn't a button. We'll probably find it somewhere in the castle." Susie said, which Kris instantly objected.

"That's not necessary. We don't exactly need the button to access the floor. We just need to press the thing behind the button and it should work." Kris pushed his finger into the slot, and when he pushed against something, the elevator started rapidly falling again.

"**OH GOD DAMN IT, ME!"** Kris cursed himself as he and his friends were sent hurtling to the bottom of the elevator shaft.

***The monotony of long elevator rides shine within you!**

[**Hey, it's ya boi, Selah. Yeah, we're doing the Jevil fight next chapter. And let me tell you, this is where the story makes it's turning point to something more... Original. So I hope you look forward to it. Don't forget to heart, favorite and comment telling me what you liked or absolutely hated about this. See you in the next chapter. Also, I made the new title. It's bad, but it's better than the default option.**]

**Y'all got me fucked up if you think I'm ever going to make another title thing again.**

**Though I may replace it if someone makes a picture that isn't garbage for me... Yeah, I'm begging for fanart for a fanfiction. I no longer have any shame. **

**Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!**


	11. Freedom and it's Knockoffs

"Kris? You okay?" Susie rubbed the blue human's back, trying to rouse him. They were at the bottom of the elevator shaft, and the door was slightly open, showing a staircase that went down unendingly.

"No." He mumbled into the ground. He had ended up facefirst onto the elevator floor when they had landed. He really didn't feel like getting up, and a glance to the side told him Ralsei was a bit frazzled from their descent. He waved off Susie's arm and got back up. "Well, time to ride this elevator back up." Kris stepped over to the buttons.

"But," Susie grabbed his armored shoulder. "There might be something useful out there. We should at least check it out." She turned her head to the door. Kris narrowed his eyes at his friend. Then he looked back at his shell-shocked pal. Ralsei was nowhere near capable of going on the elevator anytime soon. A quick walk outside might give him enough time to calm down. The human sighed as he turned to the door, and pushed the button to open it.

"Fine, a quick look around, then we go back on the elevator. Ral, let's go."

Ralsei blinked rapidly as he turned to the leader. He had obviously not heard anything he said. But, he still followed him as he walked out to the hallway. Torches hung on the wall burned with a bright blue flame. As the walked down the staircase, Susie couldn't help but look off the edge to see an unending void meeting her gaze. "Lancer has a weird basement..."

"Weirder than a dungeon?" Kris asked her as he heard the tones of a dark carnival surround him. "Ehh... no actually." Susie responded. Kris turned back to see why Ralsei was so quiet. And saw that his fur had begun to stick out like black needles. "Ralsei, what's wrong?"

Ralsei jumped at his name. "How did you know something was wrong?!"

"Ral, do this." Kris put his hand to his cheek. Ralsei mimicked that and felt his fur sticking out.

"Umm... I don't know, I just feel really on edge here." Kris just took it as Ralsei hating the circus. Then, when Kris turned back around, a giant cage formed in front of him.

"Vee, Vee, who approaches me?" A playful yet broken voice came from behind the bars. Glances were shared between the Lightners. "Uh... Kris Dremurr, Ralsei, and Susie." Kris then realized he didn't know his friends' last names, but then shrugged it off. It was pretty common for monsters to not have last names.

"Ah, have you come here to see true freedom? Or will you stay as unknowing prisoners?" Kris' eyes widened at what he said. "What do you mean, true freedom?"

"Don't you see? You all live in a cage, and I am the one looking in."

"But... aren't you in the one in the cage?" Ralsei pipped up, asking the person behind the bars. "No, no, no! Don't you see it? I can do anything, so why would I be imprisoned? I haven't even committed a crime! Now, will you keep me company outside this cage and feel all your chains be cast aside?"

Susie looked over at Kris. "C'mon, let's get out of here. We have to meet up with Lancer and his dad."

"Susie, I'm going in there," Kris responded. His teammates both looked at him funny, mouths agape. Susie was the first one to respond.

"W- why?! Why do you want to go into a cage with a psycho?!" Her questions echoed in the empty hallway.

"Susie, weren't you the one who said my choices don't matter?" The hallway was suddenly quiet as Kris' soft words reached Susie's ears.

"I... I was just trying to get under your skin! I'm sure that's not actually true!"

"It is true. Nothing I say or do matters here. I couldn't convince you to stay with us when you left us behind in Ralsei's Kingdom. I couldn't even open my mouth when you two were fighting on the Great Board. I just... I want to have even the smallest input on what happens here. Even for a second." Kris stopped talking and looked back at the figure in the cage. "Can I come in?"

"Ah, of course you may." A snap of the fingers was heard from inside the cage, and a door formed on the cages' hinges. Kris went to the door and grabbed it. "Susie, Ral. You guys can stay out here if you want." Kris sighed as he threw the door open and walked in. He heard three sets of footsteps, so either his freest form was a version with six feet, or his friends had followed him inside,

"So, is this it? Doesn't seem very free to me." A gruff voice responded behind him. "You feel more important here, Kris?"

"Nope," Kris responded, glad the two of them couldn't see the thankful smile on his face.

"Hey, uh, mister! Is there anything to do here?" Ralsei asked the person in front of them. Kris noticed him for the first time and quickly analyzed him. He had the palest purple face Kris would ever see, and a purple tail the shape of the letter J. He wore a black and purple clown outfit and had a hat with two bells at the end. And he had neon green slippers.

"Ah, why don't we all play a simple numbers game?"Ralsei beamed at the offer. "Sure! What's the game?"

"Ah, it's quite simple." Kris saw a flash of metal out of the corner of his eye. He quickly knocked his two teammates back and ducked as two avoid the flying scythe.

"If your HP reaches zero, you lose!" The evil jester laughed like a maniac as the Fun Gang went into formation. "Check," Kris said and looked at their opponent's description.

Jevil. There is no strategy for defeating this enemy. Good luck!

"Well, residue," Kris said as he drew his sword. "Watch out for Jevil's attack guys!" The second he said that Jevil shot out various card suits. Hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades. He sent them flying erratically all over the cell they had foolishly entered. Kris had begun to defend himself, cutting through any bullets that came towards him. As he tried to back away from the sea of magic attacks, he was tripped by someone behind him. He had to quickly stab the ground with his sword and reposition himself so that he wasn't permanently disabled by a certain diamond being sent hurdling towards his spine. Well, as permanently as a person with a healer can get.

"_What the hell, Susie?!"_ He asked as he looked up at his friend's sly smile. She started to toss her head back to laugh at him, but Kris elbowed her in the gut to knock her away from the bullets. Her face molted from amusement to anger in an instant. "You can be angry once I save your worthless hide." Kris spat at her as he walked away from her to engage Jevil, surprised at his spiteful vocabulary. The jerk had decided to bob around the cage while he watched his opponents bicker.

Kris went for a sweeping slash with his Spooky Sword, but Jevil had suddenly disappeared as he swung. Kris immediately repositioned himself, expecting an attack at his blind spot. But his pale-faced opponent was gone. Then he heard someone at his side, and he turned towards it.

"Kris! _W-what should I do?!"_ Ralsei called to him pleadingly as Jevil ran at him with his Jevil's Knife. A blade flew through the air and nicked the jester's leg. He laughed painfully, and as he turned around received a sword hilt to the side of his skull. When he took the blow, he switched positions once more and disappeared.

"_Ralsei! When you're being attacked, you run away or fight back!" _Kris reminded him as he turned his back to the prince and began to scan the battlefield for his target. Suddenly, a gust picked up in the cage. It spiraled with... pool floaties. "Oh, god damn-" Kris was cut off when the gust turned into a hurricane that surrounded him in pool floaties that burned as much as any magical attack. All it took was a graze to send him cursing a storm. And the worst part was that the _healer_ was cowering right behind him, not even attempting to heal Kris.

When the attack died down, Kris turned angrily back at Ralsei. "Listen, Ralsei. I don't know why you're acting like this. But you need to _heal_! Is it too much for you to even try using that magic to help?! So either you heal me, or run away like a useless coward!" Footsteps were heard behind Kris. When he turned around, he got a fist straight to the cheek. He was knocked off balance, and almost fell over.

"Kris!" Ralsei called out to him.

"That's what you get for elbowing me!" Susie gloated as she was glared down with Kris' red eyes.

"Can you not be an absolute idiot for FIVE MINUTES, SUSIE?!" Kris yelled at the purple dinosaur. "_Because if you can't do that, then we're already de-"_

Red spurted out in front of Kris, and he coughed up blood as well. He looked up and saw Susie's eyes widen and watched her slowly call out his name. He looked down to his side, and he felt his insides being washed with lava. A scythe had come flying from the side and embedded itself in between his ribs. He could his heart pulsing with adrenaline and fear. Was he going to die?

And a cold thought brought him back. Why did he care? He's been burned alive by his own mother, frozen to death, clubbed with bones, impaled by magical spears, been shot at with lasers, had bombs thrown at him, and was burned by the breath of a dragon's skull. He's experienced death numerous times. He should be greeting it like an old friend.

That brought him to another question. _Why _was he dying? He was impaled by an insane prisoner in some random ass cage. He shouldn't be dying. He's the Angel. He's defeated literal GODS, and he was dying. He had power. He had the power to stop this. He had the power to _end this._ And he was willing to let what he was before fade in exchange for his life.

_*Your LOVE has increased._

Surrounded by his own blood, a bloodied grin formed on Kris' face. "Heal me." He said to the static figure beside him. Ralsei turned, distracted whatever attack Jevil was throwing at him. "What?"

"_HEAL ME!" _Kris yelled at his mage, and Ralsei went to work healing him. "Susie, I need you to distract that bastard for a second." Susie didn't turn to him but set off after the childish maniac. As Ralsei muttered his Healing Prayer beside him, Kris' heart began to flutter. He was excited. He wanted this fight. He had been afraid to admit it, but he relished in combat. He loved the feeling of cutting into someone. Of watching someone's body turn from pure fear to an empty husk of what they had been. As soon as the spell ended, Kris leaped into combat, scanning for Jevil.

He saw Susie fighting the jester herself. And a feeling of disappointment filled him at the mere sight of her fighting. She was fighting to _defeat,_ and not to kill. So, he went over to show her how to really fight. He closed the gap faster than anyone could imagine, and took a single slash at his back. Jevil didn't expect this and took the blow. Though, he disappeared soon after. As Kris ran after the teleporting prisoner, he left his words to Susie in the wind.

"_Next time, kill __him before I have to save you." _

Kris could read the Darkner's attack patterns by then and ran at Ralsei. He pointed his blade at him, and right at Ralsei put up his arms to defend himself, Jevil appeared before him. He narrowly avoided a fatal blow, but had a chunk of his face taken out by Kris' blade.

"Lucky me," Kris said with a smile as Jevil disappeared again. "Ralsei. Stick with Susie. I don't want to keep chasing after him to protect you." He tossed those words carelessly at his companion and left him on his own as he tried to search for where the enemy would appear again.

Quickly, he spotted Jevil. And another. And some more.

Soon, there were dozens of Jevils surrounding him with the same malicious grin, their long purple tongues sticking out. Kris' grin widened as he lifted his blade up, inviting his opponent to attack him.

The jester took the invitation gladly, as the horde of Jevils turned into Jevil's Knives and began to fly around him. Kris barely moved to dodge the flying scythes, and he casually sliced through the copies and watched as they poofed into black mist. He turned back once to see his companions and saw the visible awe and terror on their face. He chuckled, then took a slash to the shoulder.

He refocused on his fight, and with a flash of red, cut through the remaining scythes in an instant. His smile had grown as he began to look around him, searching for his enemy.

Then, he countered a surprise strike. It had no rhyme nor reason. Just completely random. Jevil's scythe blade had been broken by Kris' counter slash with his sword. Kris quickly dispersed his blade, swept Jevil's legs, and grabbed his throat as he sent him crashing into the ground. He resummoned his blade in his free hand and tightened his grip on the Jevil's throat. He knew it wouldn't kill him- even humanoid monsters didn't operate under the same logic as regular humans. Instead, it was to make sure he didn't jerk around as he plunged his sword into Jevil's chest, killing him.

As he raised his blade above Jevil, both of their smiles at their biggest, a cry was heard across the prison. Kris turned to see Ralsei running to him, saying something to try to persuade Kris from finishing the fight. The begging fell on deaf ears, and Kris sent the blade straight down as Ralsei said the one thing Kris would acknowledge. "Please don't-"

_"Please don't kill me."_

_A golden flower shook before him. The newly scattered dust of his father was settling around him. He took the face of his true form and begged for his life. And in his begging, he'd given up the one thing that would've saved him. The Angel's respect for him._

_He didn't know how many times he'd cut him. All he knew was that where there used to be Flowey, there was green mush. And the same green stain was coated on his newly acquired knife. As he looked upon the remains of the Dremurr family, he looked up and saw-_

_*Your LOVE has decreased_

Kris stopped the kni- the _sword_ from entering Jevil's chest. In fact, he did away with the blade, and cast it aside into the prison. "I win." Were the only words he dared to let escape his lips. He turned his eyes back to his friends and noticed he still had a smile on his face. He wanted to punch himself in the stomach. He wanted to dismember himself. He wished there was anything to distract him from the hollow pain eating away at him. He'd failed to change. He'd done the same thing. He wasn't even capable of stopping himself.

Kris let go of Jevil's throat and signaled to his friends that they were leaving. Right before Kris had stepped out of the prison, Jevil called out to him.

"Wait! Why would you choose to go back to that cage?! Stay here, and play with me for the rest of the time?"

"No. This _cage_ has nothing I want. Do you think the freedom this cage provides is what you want? It gives you the freedom to act, but no choice of _how _you act. There's no way to change here. So, stay here for eternity, and think about the false freedom you claim to enjoy so much." Kris turned back and shut the door behind his team. No one said anything as they walked back up the staircase, and sat back down for the elevator ride back up to the first floor.

[**Aye. Welcome back to the part where I make this story my own. Or, at least more 'personal take', instead of 'personal retelling'. So, thank you for reading, don't forget to favorite the story if you liked it, and I'll see you next chapter.**]

**No one has actually said anything about how I write the effects of LOVE increasing or decreasing yet. If you're curious or just want to say what you think about it, feel free to ask me about it, as I am altering how the Level Of Violence system works and maybe adding some backstory for it later down the line. All will be explained, but see ya later and thanks for reading.**


	12. Storming The Castle

An awkward silence filled the small elevator as the Fun Gang road it to the first floor. Ralsei had tried to heal Kris' wounds after his little freak out in the jail cell, but he had used a save point to heal himself, so they all just sat in their little corners of the accelerating box. Kris started at his hands, hair covering his eyes so his gaze was unrecognizable. Memories he'd spent weeks repressing were starting to float to the surface of his mind, and popping with pain and regret. Susie looked over at Kris, seeing him in a new light. For the first time, she considered him 'dangerous'. And Ralsei sat, looking straight at the ground as he thought over the little he had actually done in the jail cell. And the worse part for the Dark Prince was something Kris had said to him back in the Great Board. 'Apologize for how you said it, not what you said. As long as you meant it, you have no reason to take it back.' Kris hadn't even apologized since he said all those horrible things to his teammates. Did that mean he meant everything he said? That train of thought permeated the Darkner's mind.

They eventually reached the first floor. When Kris stood up, he exhaled exaggeratedly. "Guys." He said, grabbing his friends' attention.

"I'm... sorry for what I said back there. I don't think you guys are useless or weak or whatever I said back there." Silence followed his apology, and an unknown reflex took over as he bowed to his teammates. "I hope you could forgive me."

"Uhhh... sure, I guess," Susie said tactlessly.

"O-Of course, Kris," Ralsei responded quickly, having no idea what the right way to respond to that gesture that he used most of the time. Kris raised his head and thanked them right before they walked out of the elevator. He saw a roaming guard appear behind a corner they were walking, and immediately panicked, knocking the Ruddin Ranger out via wall slam.

"... Not the worst start to an invasion." Kris muttered, and the Fung Gang began their semi-pacifistic takeover.

"Alright, Susie, it's time we teach you about acting," Kris said to his ex-bully. She gave him a blank stare and shrugged. "Whatever."

"Good. Now, let's start this fight."

"Wait what-" Susie said dumbly as Kris ran a corner and instigated a fight with a group of Hathys. Kris, Susie, and Ralsei began to form up as the blue human gave his purple dinosaur friend the order to flirt with a Hathy.

"Hell no," Susie said in response. Kris shrugged and looked at Ralsei. The Dark Prince put a hand to his chin as he thought, then a light flashed in his eyes.

"Susie, it's okay if you're scared of talking to them," Ralsei said with a layer of caring and consideration. And just a tad bit of patronizing. Susie's pride wouldn't allow her to give in to defeat. So, she scoffed and tried her best at flirting. She strolled confidently up to the Head Hathy and crossed her arms. "Hey." She greeted coolly.

"You... come here often?" It took all of Kris' will to not retch at the terrible delivery. Ralsei sighed in response, shaking his head. The Head Hathy looked at Susie funny, then decided to just walk away from the encounter. "H-hey! Come back here so I can flirt with you!"

"... That was really bad, Susie." Ralsei said bluntly. "Well, I don't see you doing any better!" Ralsei shook his head and walked over to one of the remaining Head Kathy's. "O, lo behold the beautiful being in front of me." Kris slightly grimaced at his friends' obvious usage of poetry.

"Your hair flows like a dazzling- Wait, you don't have hair. Uhh..." The Head Hathy paled and walked away, an awkward and embarrassing blue blush appearing on its face. "W-wait! I can try again, come back!" Ralsei tried to call back to them, but it was ineffective. Kris facepalmed.

"Y'know what? Let's just leave the flirting to Kris!" Susie grumbled as she and Ralsei stepped back alongside him. Kris shook his head disappointedly as he walked over to the last Head Hathy. "Hey. I really like your shade of blue. It's cerulean, right? Well, as a fellow blue creature, I can appreciate your cerulean beauty." Kris smiled nervously as he said this, making an effort to make himself seem as nervous and equally embarrassed by smoothing his mop of hair. The Head Hathy blushed light blue, and Kris spared them and they walked away it's their tentacles to their face.

Kris turned back to his friends.

"Alright, this time let's do some _standard_ teaching. So, what do you guys think went wrong with your flirting?" He asked, suddenly really concerned about their lack of flirtatious skill. Susie and Ralsei shared a look, and Susie went first. "Why are you so _invested_ in this?"

"Because I never want to witness either of you putting such a disgrace to my greatest skill ever again," Kris responded like a bullet. Susie slightly flinched at the words, but couldn't really deny them. "Okay, I guess I should just give you guys some advice. Susie, your prep was perfect."

"Prep?" Susie responded, tilting her head at her Flirt Instructor. "What you did before you said the most standard line in all of history." He explained. "The confident stride you did as you walked up to the Head Hathy was a great pre-flirt. But even if you season a steak perfectly, if it's burnt or undercooked, there's no saving it. I suggest you flirt with compliments."

"Uhh, why?"

"Because you exude a, frankly, extremely charismatic and confident aura. Anyone would love to get a compliment from someone as cool and charismatic as you." Kris stated, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Susie rubbed the back of her unruly mane. "Thanks for telling me how awesome I am, I guess." She tried her best to hide her embarrassment underneath her ego.

"Yeah yeah, you're welcome. Now, Ral."

Ralsei looked up at Kris expectantly. He seemed to be the type that enjoyed being taught. "Ralsei, where the hell did you get that line you were forcing onto that Head Hathy?" The question came like a hammer, sending the Dark Prince into a stuttering, blushing mess. "Uh... one of the poetry books in my castle..."

Kris stared at him underneath his mop of hair. "Okay, Ral, try not to do that. People like getting _original lines _more than anything. And if you really can't think of one, _never use a line that doesn't apply to the situation_. " Kris lightly scolded Ralsei for his lapse in foresight, and the goat monster flinched at it. "Ralsei, you're cute." Ralsei immediately started blushing again. "And naïve. And innocent. Just telling someone you'd want to hang out with them, or saying you enjoy their company would be enough to make anyone swoon."

"Thank you..." Ralsei said, still basking in the _cute_ compliment. Susie reinstated herself in the conversation. "Well, Kris, what's your secret then?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, how do you flirt so well every time?"

"Ahh," Kris said with understanding. "Well, you see, I lack both your confidence and his sweetness, so I use that absence of personality as my advantage. I analyze my target, figure out what they're weak to, and replace whatever semblance of personality I actually have with the traits they're the weakest to, and completely sweep them off their feet."

"Oh." Susie glanced away from Kris.

"Ah, don't worry about. My flirting methods may be inherently manipulative, but whenever I say things, I almost always mean what I say."

"Oh!" Ralsei said, as he was sent into a blushing frenzy.

Then, Kris was teased by Susie for constantly flirting with everyone around him, which he teased right back with her inability to flirt. And Ralsei just skipped around alongside them, on a metaphorical Cloud 9. As they climbed up the castle, Kris began to hear a theme. Every time he heard it, he got more and more excited. Because he knew exactly what it was.

_It was their team's theme!_ The thought of the three of them finally being a team filled Kris with a warm, fuzzy feeling right in his stomach. Either that or the moss was _really _disagreeing with him.

They all eventually came across a room that immediately locked itself as soon as they had all entered. Kris had already been on edge with the whole time with the deep black that the entire castle seemed drenched in. So, he may or may not have yelled at bit when the spikes appeared. A sharp glance made Susie try and stop snickering at the scaredy-cat human.

Anyways, before them, a lanky, indigo Darkner appeared in mid-air, and started gloating in ye olde English.

"Ahahaha! Thoust FOOLS! Ye minuscule wormes have fallen into the trap of thyself, the Master of Puzzles ROUXLS KARRD!" The Fun Gang shared their patented 'WTF' gaze as the man-made a puzzle appear before them.

"NOW, I DAREST THEE TO SOLVE MINE SPECTACULAR PUZZLE-"

Kris pushed a block onto the switch. A clicking got rid of the spikes at the exit of the room. Susie and Kris looked at the 'Master Of Puzzles' mockingly. His eyes widened at the blue Lightner.

"God.

**DAMN IT"**

The ether-like being suddenly floated away, leaving behind a trail of barely contained anger and curses.

"Huh." The three heroes all said in complete harmony. Then, they shared a snicker, and went on to the next floor.

"Kris, are you _sure_ this is the right place? Because you aren't exactly the... best at directions."

"That was a cheap shot and you know it." Kris shot back at the dinosaur as he looked at the door in front of them. 5th floor, club symbol over the door, it was it alright. The thing that put off Kris the most was the terrible music emanating from the room.

"Alright, we're just gonna go in, tell Clover happy birthday, give her the Top Cake, and leave. Got it Susie?"

"What? Why me?!"

"Because I know you'll end up eating everything there if we don't leave fast enough. Besides, you're Ralsei and I's plus one. So please don't do anything that will get us killed." Kris asked his teammate. Susie heaved out a sigh, and rolled her eyes at Kris. "Fine... I guess if I _have _to. But it'll be boring with an attempt on our lives, y'know."

"I know. Now, c'mon." Kris waved his friends in to follow him, and he had to hold onto the recent memory of his team's theme to keep himself from dying of poor taste. He saw some familiar assailants in the room, some playing pool, and others watch some Darkner television or something. Susie walked right over to the pool table, and began to play with the Darkners over there. But, the monster of the hour was busy talking to their other guests, so Kris and Ralsei couldn't go give them the cake right away.

"Ral, could we just leave the cake out somewhere and book it?"

"No! Kris, we have to deliver our gift with a smile! Besides, I think I- _we _need a bit of a break." Kris sighed in response, and lead Ralsei to a spot against the wall, where they could see when Clover was done being a good host. "Alright, we have some downtime. Anything you wanna get off your chest?"

He turned to see Ralsei give him a look of surprise, then a small smile. "When did you get so good at reading me?" Kris shrugged.

"A good friend's gotta know when something's up with his friends. And I distinctly remember hearing a lack of your voice after we left the cell, so what's wrong?"

Ralsei looked down at his hands and began to twiddle his thumbs. Kris just watched as Ralsei found the courage to say what he wanted to. Ralsei eventually sighed and looked up at Kris. Right, where his eyes would be if they weren't covered.

"... What did you mean when you said Jevil's cage held 'false freedom?"

"..." Kris sighed as well as he tried to describe the feeling the cage gave him. "That place... it's either the fakest type of freedom or the truest freedom." A confused look was painted over Ralsei's face, and it made Kris scoff. "I mean... that cage may have given us freedom, but it didn't give us choice. It was like we were... forced to be what our initial reactions are. It didn't give us the _choice _to change, and it brought out the worst in us. So, either it's the fakest type of freedom, freedom with no choice. Or, it's the truest freedom, and the only thing we, as people, could do with that freedom is act as we initially react."

Ralsei looked at him for a while after he had finished his explanation. "What, do I have something on my face?" Kris joked, not the most comfortable with being stared at by his adoptive brother's look alike. Then, Ralsei quickly wrapped his arms around him, and the fuzzy feeling in his chest warmed up instantly. "Well, I can die happy now." Saying that just made Ralsei hug him tighter.

"Oho, our new friends are getting pretty close at our party, huh?"

"HEY! NO CUDDLING AT THIS PARTY! WHERE'S OUR GIFT?! HUH?"

"Ah... sorry to interrupt you..."

Ralsei jumped back out of the hug as he turned to the Clovers, blushing.

"Oh, hey." Kris raised his hand in greeting, while Ralsei bowed and stuttered his royal greetings through his embarrassment.

"Ah... Thank you for inviting us to this lovely party... w-we brought you a present-"

"GIMME!"

The loudest Clover suddenly shouted at Ralsei, and the other two Clovers had to tell it to simmer down. Meanwhile, Kris searched through his inventory and made a cake appear out of thin air. He raised the cake to the Clovers. "Happy birthday, Clover. Sorry, we couldn't write you name on it with frosting...

"Wait a second! Isn't this the cake we ordered from that spinning guy?"

"OH YEAH! THANKS FOR DELIVERING IT, DORKS! **EVERYONE, LET'S EAT!**"

"You guys can eat... I don't like cake too much."

The entire party began to gather around the cake. Though, Kris made sure one person didn't eat it. Susie struggled against Kris' titanium grasp on her arm as he pulled her away from the desert.

"Kris! Let me eat the cake! C'mon, I'm starving!" Susie pleaded with him, but it fell on deaf ears.

"Susie, you're literally the person who ate the original that we had to get a masseuse to fix! You've already eaten the cake once, not again! Ral, can you help tame this mad woman?!" Kris pulled on the arm, and suddenly Susie was tied up by a certain snazzy scarf. He quickly gripped the scarf's ends and began to pull her back when a sudden force gave way and the pulling became way easier.

"Wow, didn't know you could... manipulate scarves..." Kris said as he strained to drag the dinosaur away from the cake. He looked at the Mage manipulating the scarf behind him slightly heaving. "Yeah... magic, you know? But it's _really hard _to restrain Susie."

"Yeah, well we aren't free yet. Thanks for having us, happy birthday Clover, hope we see you again!" Kris and Ralsei said their goodbyes and dragged the hungry Susie away from her cake.

***The sadness of not eating birthday cake shines within you!**

* * *

[**Two uploads in a relatively close time together? SELAH, YOU HIGH BRO?!**

**No. Just... got some inspiration. I hope you guys like these little bits of downtime and banter. Cause there's going to be a lot of it when I have to make an original story after Chapter 1 is all outta content for me to cop- borrow. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the story, make sure to favorite me and the story. Also like it. See you all next chapter, with some more... foreshadowing. Also, for some reason I can't use spaces for the titles anymore, so blame them for the small titles. Later, and thank you for reading!**]

**God, I hate how I used to write these A/Ns.**


	13. King Slayer

"You alright now, Susie?" Kris said as they left the most hip shop he'd ever seen. The purple dinosaur was too busy munching on hundreds of mints to respond, so Kris just turned to the green cloaked goat beside him. "Well, I guess she's been successfully bribed. Now, where to next?"

Ralsei looked back at him and shrugged with a small grin. "Up, I guess?" Kris rolled his eyes under his sweeping, dark hair.

"Yeah, I got that part," Kris replied, to which Ralsei decided to snicker at him. In response, Kris grabbed the Prince, put him in a headlock, and ruffled his dark locks underneath his hat. Susie groaned from behind the two of them and shoved them forward, which got them back on track to the Dark Fountain.

"HA! THOUST FOOLS!" Yelled the tall, lanky sesquipedalian as the Fun Gang was trapped in another room. "DID YE REALLY BELIEVE THAT THY WOULD GIVE UP SO EASILY?!" Susie barely held back her snarky reply, while Kris looked up to Roulx Kaard with the tensest stare imaginable. And Ralsei listened politely like the good Prince he is.

"NOW, YE INSIGNIFICANT WORMES, BEHOLD MINE GREATEST PUZZLE!" In a flash, the most difficult puzzle Roulx had ever created appeared before them.

"**...**" It was a box. Right next to a switch. Kris kicked the box straight onto the switch, and the room unlocked itself.

"...Ah... Ahahaha... AHAHAHAHAHA-" While the 'Duke of Puzzles' had his little mental breakdown, Kris lead the Fun Gang right past him and onto the final floor of the castle.

"_..._" Before the lot of them was a K. Round. It had a new crown with straps that held it onto the checker piece's head. And right behind it was Roulx Kaard, who was probably saying something in Shakespearean English, though Kris was definitely tuning him out. The blue human turned to his bulky friend.

"Susie." She turned towards him. "Toss me at the crown." Susie gave him the funniest look underneath her mane of hair and looked up at the crown. "I'm naming the throw." She stated her conditions, which Kris accepted with a nod, then was suddenly hoisted up into the air, and aimed like a football in Susie's hands. Ralsei was probably panicking or looking at the two of them weirdly, but Kris didn't care at the moment. "Blue...!" Susie said, tensing her arms as she leaned back into her throw.

"Bomber!" She finished as she tossed Kris straight at K. Round. As he flew at the dim beast, Kris summoned his Spooky Sword and slashed straight through the crown. He landed simply on his feet as the scrapped crown rolled on the ground along with the C. Round, who rolled away like the dimwit it is. Kris turned to Roulx, sword raised straight at the Duke.

"Listen up, Lampost. I'm tired of all your dog shi- residue puzzles. Do you know how many of them I've had to solve?" He asked rhetorically as he stomped over to the Duke, his teeth gritted in anger. "Uhh..."

"**All of them**." Kris cut Roulx Kaard off bluntly. "And I'm tired of going through the same thing over and over again. So, I have two things for you to do. One, disarm and deactivate all the traps in the Dark World, starting with the ones in this castle, and never make a trap again." Kris said as he laid his blade's edge on the purple Darkner's throat. "_Or else," Kris said venomously._

"But thine King-"

"**The King is irrelevant in this matter, so just do as I, the one with the blade at your throat, say.**"

"O...ok.." He said shakily, then bolted as soon as Kris dissipated his sword. Kris turned back to his teammates and sighed. "Sorry, but I'm just really annoyed with that guy, and he's been the cause of all my troubles so far, soo..." Kris trailed off, then yawned.

"Anyway, let's go have this chat." The two non-humans gave each other a look but followed their threatening leader to the throne room.

_As soon as Kris entered the room, he was back in Asgore's throne room. Golden flowers growing all over, the humble monster humming as he finished up watering the plants. And as the monster looked up at him with the kindest smile and the softest eyes, the human saw in an instant all the pain and hurt his mere appearance gave him. And then as the King talked to his adopted child's kinsmen, another thing watered in that room._

"Kris? God, why are you acting so weird today..." Susie mutter from beside him, which brought Kris back to the present. Or a horrible future. The throne room could've been a copy of Asgore's, except for the lack of vegetation and the obvious damage around the room. Everything was slashed as if a madman took a blade to everything and attempted to cut everything till something broke. As he trekked through the damaged throne room, the feeling of nostalgia and regret shone within him.

**The Angel**

**Eastern Castle - Throne Room**

"I've always been weird. You've just never taken the time to notice." Kris replied, a bit late. As he walked past the throne, he saw a cage that gave him carnival flashbacks. "You! Prince... eh... Riley? Anyway, get me out of this cage!" A green, three armed Diamond-shaped Darkner called out to Ralsei from the cage. "You... know who I am?"

"His name's Ralsei." Kris corrected quietly, as he followed Ralsei to the cage. "Yes, yes, of course! Now, let me out!"

"We don't have a key, and we're busy," Susie growled at the monster, trying to get the team back on track. "She's right, we'll get Lancer to free you." Kris offered.

"Yeah, we'll save you right after we deal with the problem at hand, I promise!" Ralsei swore to the Diamond as the three heroes ran out the door behind the cage.

"... Dad, I want you to spare the Lightners." The words carried over to the Fun Gang from Lancer's mouth. He seemed to be talking to the king, but he was covered in darkness. Kris had no idea how he looked.

"**They're still alive?!" **The shadowy man grabbed Lancer by the shoulders roughly. Lancer nodded reluctantly. "**My son, you've failed me and your kingdom. I will execute them myself.**"

"N-no! You can't do that!" Lancer snapped at his father, which was quickly stopped by an apparent tightened grip on his shoulders. "**Never raise your voice at me again.**" He said with his deep voice that seemed to mirror the abyss he ruled over.

"Hey, let him go!" Susie called over to the king, who seemed to only now notice her presence. The dark figure turned over to the Fun Gang.

"**Fine, I will let him go.**" He said as he hoisted his son by his neck and lifted him over the edge of the bridge. Kris hadn't even noticed they were on a bridge until he looked over the edge Lancer hung over perilously. No magic would heal what that fall would do to Lancer.

"**But, I will set him down if you all reveal your weapons, and stand down.**" Kris gritted his teeth, but he reluctantly summoned his sword and tossed it across the ground. Susie did the same, and the three heroes all kneeled before the King. The king's booming laugh filled the empty space in the room. He raised his hand, and Kris saw bright white spades hovering above his friends. He'd bet there was another spinning above him as well, and he could almost feel the bullet piercing his flesh. It definitely wouldn't be the first time.

"**Now, Lancer, my son, you will see what must happen to traitors and Lightners alike.**" Kris glanced between his locks of dark hair at the Royal 'family'. Suddenly, Kris heard the sound of a bullet forming, and he saw the King flinch, and he and Susie dove for their weapons, taking their stances. Lancer, the caster of the bullet, took the time to slide away, with a single glance at Susie as he ran.

"**Fine. I will fight you all. And bring back what you Lightners took from us.**"

The King stood before them, and with a sweeping of his cloak, revealing what looked to be a giant, tubby version of Lancer. Except with a second mouth in his stomach and sharper teeth.

"**To my people, I am a hero. To you, I'M THE BAD GUY!**" Spades began to fill the air, forcing the heroes to keep moving to avoid consecutive impalement.

"Kris, let me talk to him for a sec!" Susie called out, and Kris responded accordingly as he went around slashing the bullets to pieces as fast as he could to buy Susie some time to talk.

"Listen, I'm Lancer's friend. So if we can solve this without us beating your-"

"**There is no other way. Monsters like us only solve our problems with bloodshed. Or are you a coward?**" Susie's face twitched for a second, and her usual violent snarl came right back out.

"Alright, then let's see some blood!" She said as she charged towards the King, swinging her axe like mad. Kris followed her movement, and for a second he thought he felt something- something warm and painful all at once.

Then, something appeared and shot out of his second mouth. It looked like a spade attached to a chain, and the King skillfully wrapped it around the Lightners. Distracted from the strange feeling, Kris was ensnared by the King. Kris coughed as he was suddenly tied.

"W-Wait!" Ralsei called out to the King. "We don't need to fight! We can just talk things out, and-!"

"**You are a naive fool. I am glad no citizen is left in your kingdom to suffer such an unfit ruler's naive speeches. So, why don't you just sit back and wait to be executed like the rest of your **_**heroes!**" _The King snapped back at Ralsei as he summoned a train of spades behind the entangled Lightners, and he began to swing them at all the spades that he aimed at them. Kris' world suddenly shifted rapidly from side to side as he did his best to block the bullets with his chest plate. He wasn't as good as it as he had hoped, and when the attack eventually stopped, he and Susie were covered gashes by the spades. At least they were free.

Kris looked over to Ralsei, and before he could even move his mouth, another strange feeling filled him. It was a soft and suffocating feeling, and it faded much like the first one. But, he's been on the whole magic adventure multiple times, and he knew that weird feelings gave huge power boosts. He latched onto the feeling and felt his own feelings welling up inside him. Anxiety. Fear. Loneliness. Aspiration. For a brief moment, Kris felt a bit lost. But, he held on and felt his energy flow out of him.

Then, a yellow light washed over him and Susie, and all their wounds were completely healed. Kris turned to Ralsei, and a look of pure determination stared right back at him. Kris chuckled as he turned back to Susie, who had decided to circle around the King and slowly make her way towards him. The warm pain he felt in his soul was still there, and he began to focus on it as he sprinted straight towards the King. Self-doubt. Self-loathing. Anger. Jealousy. Kris felt confused for a moment, but he held onto himself and how _he _felt.

He raised his sword skyward and took a slash at the King's shoulder. It wasn't anywhere near-fatal, it was just a niche. But it was effective at catching his attention. He turned towards him, chained spade at hand and ready to be swung. "_Red_-!" Kris called out, then sent all of his will towards his partner. The King didn't think less of the human's shout, as he swung his weapon at Kris. But, the call-out wasn't finished yet.

"-_Buster_!" Susie finished as the red arc of magic came careening at the King's back, knocking him to Kris, who took the opportunity to flip his blade and shove the hilt right above the stomach mouth. The King flinched and stepped back, and Susie sent her axe's handle straight into his skull. The King doubled over, along with Kris who was completely drained from lending his friends his determination. Ralsei ran over to the lot of them and began to heal Kris how he usually did. Kris _did_ have a talent for getting almost stabbed.

"Ah...ha...ha..." The King wheezed as the Fun Gang stood over him. "... You all are much...stronger than I thought. I am sorry."

Even Ralsei was skeptical of the King's sudden decision to turn over a new leaf.

"**...I have a grudge against Lightners... They've abandoned us here in the darkness, for decades, leaving not even a thought of us in their minds. I just... overreacted in hearing the people that had burned our kind so viciously and painfully had returned here to take what little hope we have left here.**" The King said sadly, his cloak beginning to fly away into the sky. Kris and the others had learned not to question things the hard way, so they said nothing.

"..." Ralsei looked over at the King, and the connection to him Kris felt seemed to buzz. And then Kris knew exactly what he was about to do. Ralsei slowly walked closer to the King and clasped his hands together in prayer. Kris was fighting against every single muscle in his body, but it had seemed to turn into his own personal cage. And quite possibly his noose as well.

A yellow light flashed over the King.

"Don't worry," Ralsei said with the kindest smile. "Kris, Susie and I have learned to forgive. You can learn too." He held out his hand to the villainous monarch of the Darklands, and Kris could only widen his eyes as he saw a spade speed straight into Ralsei's chest.

Before Kris knew it, he was holding Ralsei as he went limp, away from the King. Kris looked back at the wound, right over the heart on his cloak/blouse. He could see pillars of black mist, as thick as the smoke of a forest fire, funneling out of the looked over at Ralsei, and tried to at least hold him tightly in his last moments. As he began to hug him, Ralsei gave him the most strained smile he could muster, and Ralsei's body exploded with a _poof into a black mist that was gone in an instant. The green cloak, pink scarf, and green hat that were scattered both on the ground and in Kris' hands were all that remained of the Prince of No One._

Tears welled in Kris' eyes, as he held the cloak tightly. The smell of chalk wafted through the air, and Kris remembered walking through the beautiful town with the twisting buildings that seemed to bow before Ralsei's castle. He remembered the jokes he'd shared, the battles they'd won, and the time they spent.

"**Now that the traitor got what he deserved. An execution, fitting the naive fool he was. Pity there will be no one left to mourn or miss him when I have finished.**"

**_*Your LOVE has increased_**

Kris glanced over to the King, his red eyes burning with tears and hatred.

"**At least he doesn't have to watch as his cowardly friends get cut down by a _true_ hero."**

**_*Your LOVE has increased_**

"**Really, I pity the poor boy. His friend didn't even attempt to save him.**"

***_Your LOVE has_**

**_*Your LO_**

**_*Y_**

**_*Your LOVE has maxed out_**

Kris' eyes were bone dry, and he stood up silently. Staring straight at the man who killed the Lonely Prince. The one who killed his first friend. Then, the King's filthy mouth opened itself to commit more sacrilege against Ralsei's memory.

Before an eyelid could even close, Kris had summoned his blade, closed the distance between himself and the King, and cut off his arm. His eyes stared unblinkingly as the arm exploded into black mist, and the now monoplegic King grasped at the shadowy stump that used to be his shoulder and screamed. The scream seemed to fill the air. A scream of pain, of shock, and of pure terror. Kris' face twitched upward as if a piece of him was still able to feel enough to take sadistic pleasure. But the rest of him silenced the single, corrupt emotion.

The King regained enough of his senses to create a magic space around the human. Kris saw the white walls around him, and a memory popped in his head. Then, the walls began to prick out with hundreds of tiny magic needles. And the enclosed space began to rocket away from the King, with Kris still inside and forced back to the end of the hallway. Kris only felt the wind rush past his ears as he matched the pace of the box until it reached the end of the hallway.

It stopped abruptly, and a tiny bit of Kris wished to chuckle at the attempt. But, the disconnect throughout his body canceled out his emotions. The box began to close in slowly, but it was increasing in speed. Kris' red eyes flashed, and he broke through the magic space with a single punch, and the blackness of the Darklands came rushing back.

Kris' gaze then fixed back at the King, who seemed to be struck dumb by Kris' easy escape from the prison. Kris then took a single step towards his friend's killer. The King lifted his open hand at Kris and suddenly a dozen spades spawned around him. They were all pointed at a vital area that would've killed anyone instantly. Well, anyone _human_ at least.

But, Kris saw through the attack immediately. The King clenched his fist, and the bullets began to close the inches of the distance they had between Kris and themselves. The red on Kris' blade seemed to fade like rapidly cooling metal as he took a step forward. The magical spades were minced by Kris' sword and rapidly faded. Kris took several small steps toward the King, his grip on his sword loose and interchangeable. Then, another space was created to surround him, and before the space was completely made, Kris saw the pure fear on the King's face.

Kris waited for the King to make his attack. He knew the King didn't have the will or the power to use Nothing, so he had no fear that he would spend eternity waiting for an attack that would never come. And another reason why that move wouldn't work pricked his mind, but he couldn't quite place it.

Abruptly, the King's chained spade came flying through the box, right where Kris was standing. He teetered in place and stepped aside from the bullet's path. He then danced around the rapid, almost crazed swarm of bullets sent into his space.

Eventually, a spade came flying at Kris, and he redirected the chained spade with his bare hands straight into the wall and freed himself. The King's face twisted unnaturally into a terror-stricken expression. Kris became bored with the game he was playing with the King's emotions.

In a breath, he had become within spitting distance of the King, blade drawn, the red on his blade present, if extremely faint.

"W-Wait! Let's have a friendly chat!" The King put out his hand as if it would stop Kris. Then, he suddenly pulled it back and Kris knew two bullets were barreling at his nape and spine. He didn't move an inch as the spade's pierced through his loose armor, and reached his skin-

Where they were scattered into faintly iridescent dust. Kris looked the King in the eye, his eyes shining blood red so potent it made the air itself feel as if it was stained with blood. And it was, although not the blood of humans. No, it was stained with the lifeblood of Ralsei. And Kris was taking vengeance.

"..._that didn't seem too friendly unless the things that hit my back were just a couple of 'friendliness pellets'," _Kris said simply, his will to kill staining his words. The words themselves seemed to hold the power to knock over the King. He began to scramble backward like a cowardly crab.

"W-Wait! Let's talk about this-!"

Kris cut through where the King's stomach became a mouth and split his torso in half. Along the dotted line. There was no resistance from the body, and his blade passed through him as if the body didn't even exist. But the King's wails of pain and torment made it seem real enough. The lower half seemed to linger a bit before it _poofed _as well.

"_The time for talking as long since passed. We tried it already. HE already tried it." Kris said with uncontainable rage._

"I-I don't deserve-!"

"**Exactly. You don't deserve anything. You can't talk your way out of this.**" Kris stood over the fellow murderer.

"**You have been Judged.**" He placed his foot firmly onto the man's chest.

"**The Jury is out.**" He spun the sword in his hand as he looked down at the sniveling mess that claimed his friend's life.

"**Now you must face...**" The blade was held over the head of the previous monarch.

"**THE EXECUTIONER!**" Kris blunged his sword downwards, and the King's body popped into black mist and wafted over Kris. He saw his reflection in the blade- A dark warrior with shining red eyes and an uncaring stare. Suddenly, Ralsei flashed into his mind, and all that he had become at that moment broke down.

_Your __emotional collapse made your LOVE bottom out..._

He cried. He yelled out his sorrows in incomprehensible sobs. He swore and cursed this world and every other. They'd taken away the person he'd cared for most again. Right when he'd thought his choices could matter to _someone_ the world butchered them. He'd lost his hopes, and he became just as dark as the Darkners he'd just left without a ruler.

He didn't know how long she'd been there, but he realized that Susie was holding him. Tears streamed down her face as well. But she didn't bawl like a baby. He felt weak all over again. He was damaged goods.

"It should've been me." He'd said to her, looking her dead in the eyes. Then, he was punched in the arm. He didn't feel anything.

"Don't... don't say that! You aren't better off dead! Complaining isn't going to change anything about what happened to him! NO ONE CAN CHANGE THE PAST!"

"...oh my god..." Kris said, his eyes widening. He shoved himself off of Susie and gave her the most serious look he could muster.

"Susie, I need you to follow my orders. There's going to be a red heart that will pop out of my chest. Take it, go to the fountain, and go home."

"What about y-!" Susie said, slowly realizing. Kris gave her a small smile, to show her how much she meant to him, and told her something that would echo out the rest of her timeline.

"I'm sorry." Then, in one swift motion, he summoned his sword and plunged it straight into his heart-

* * *

"**_What are you doing, Angel?!" _**

Everything was black again. A void lacking color, life, and warmth. Kris hated this place. Seeing it gave him the heartache imaginable.

"I'm fixing everything. I have to save him-"

"_You're doing the exact same thing again!" The voice shouted at him in the voices of everyone he cared for. The combination of familiar voices made him feel immensely bad, as he'd never heard some of those voices sound so angry at his very existence. "**I cannot let you sacrifice everything for-!"**_

"I must sacrifice everything I am for my friends!" Kris shouted back at the void. "I know I did countless terrible things for the sake of a person. But, I've learned from my mistakes-!"

"_NO, YOU HAVE NOT!" The voice all shouted at him, and the emotional whiplash from the sound of all that he knew cutting him down almost broke Kris down._

"Yes, I have! I know now that I should never sacrifice other's lives for another one a whim!" Kris defended himself, doing his best to block out the voices.

"_**But you still killed again!**" _The motherly tones of Toriel's voice specifically seemed to shine in that burst.

"I killed someone for vengeance, yes I admit this. But I also killed him because he was going to do the same for me! And Susie!"

"**_Don't pretend you didn't immediately forget she was thereafter _he was killed."** The combination of Ralsei's and Susie's angered voices after what has just transpired was a knife twisting in his gut.

"I promise, I will never rely on the Reload to fix all my mistakes."

"**That wouldn't be the first time you broke a promise**_."_ Only Asriel spoke to Kris at that moment, and it took Kris everything he had not to be dragged back to the Underground again. But, Kris planted his feet on the floating nothingness he currently existed on, grit his teeth, and looked directly and unwaveringly into the void.

"**...**_ Fine. Human, I will give a single pass. But, there will be no Retry's, Resets, or Reloads after this. This is the one, and ONLY time this world will bend for you. Do not make me regret this."_

"Yeah yeah, whatever you say Gaste-"

[**R.I.P. Original Fun Gang. Let's Go, Fun Gang Two!**]

[_Hey, I'm Selah, the guy who just killed off my favorite character. Camila taught me well. Since I know you're all tired of the bold text, I'm going with the more chill italics version. Yay. So, sorry about taking forever to upload this chapter, but school and sh- crap has started, so I kinda have to. My schedule will be kind of erratically from now on. Sorry in advance for that. In any case, thank you all for reading, hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time!_]

**Oh right, OG Fun Gang got murdered. If any of you were wondering what would've happened if this timeline didn't rubberband back to Kris' last save point, Susie wouldn't have been able to seal the Dark Fountain as being a monster with a human soul makes you neither of those at that point. And as Kris was dragged back with Gaste- I mean mysterious voice, she would have to suffer with the grief that both of her friends died for nothing as not one of them could escape. Either she is overwhelmed by grief and lives life in solitude for fear of anyone else she loves dying, or she rages at the kingdom and either murders them all or becomes their new ruler. **

**On that happy note, see ya!**


	14. Courage

"-r." Kris said, then deftly backed away from a swing of the previously dead King's chained spade. He wasn't expecting to get thrown back into the ring with no warning, so he could only really dodge the King's swings while he kept his cocky grin.

Kris kicked off the ground, and made some distance between the battle-hungry King, and searched around the battlefield. He quickly saw a purple figure that stood behind the King, panting, using her axe like a cane to keep herself from collapsing. _'Probably from using Red Buster.' _The human thought to himself, remembering what point he was in the past. Then, Kris' covered eyes widened and searched rapidly for a certain green-cloaked figure on the battlefield. To avoid getting his back slashed to pieces, the blue hero summoned his blade and made a few warding strokes with the sword to force the King to back away, and he quickly whirled around to scan his back, and saw him. He was upright and breathing. He was breathing heavily, but Kris would much rather have that then him not breathing at all.

Kris found himself embracing his friend, forgetting the battle they were a part of. Ralsei was surprised by the hug, and Kris could feel the warmth of his face as he blushed. "Glad you aren't dead," Kris said simply, unable to say what he really meant. Then, he sweeper the friend of his feet, and carried him bridal style.

"K-Kris!" Ralsei said abruptly. He could smell the faint chalk coming off of Ralsei. Then, the King waved his hand, and a sea of bullets came crashing towards the pair. Kris did his best to dodge, but with the new burden in his arms, he wasn't at his best at the moment. Backpedaling, he created a noticeable distance from him and the King. He ignored the feeling of Ralsei's arms wrapped around his neck. Kris didn't particularly like the frightened clinging.

Kris tried to reach out to Ralsei's soul, but his determination faltered. He was too focused on protecting Ralsei to be able to use his power. Then, he saw the King turn his back onto the pair, and Kris realized he'd made another mistake. He left Susie behind, the one who needed his help more than Ralsei did.

He saw the spades being summoned, and Kris' instincts told him exactly where they were aiming. Gaste- The Doctor wasn't going to let him mess with time anymore. Dead was dead, no exceptions this time."_Damn..."_ he cursed under his breath and rushed over to the King. Closing the gap, he kicked out the King's legs from under him, and without faltering, continued his dash to Susie.

The bullets decreased acceleration thanks to the King's faceplant were what saved Susie and Kris. He made it time, and with Ralsei still in his arms, he tackled the worn-out Susie out of the bullets' path. He quickly untangled himself from the pile of heroes he'd made. "Ral, heal Susie for me please." He ordered Ralsei as he walked back to the enemy, and drew his blade from the mist. The King was scrabbling up, ready to attack again.

"**My Knight... I will not fail you...**" He gasped as he stood up. Kris looked at the man, then focused his blood-red eyes on the King's face. The King acted strangely after that, inhaling sharply and grasping at his shoulder. The human stored the act in his mind, and in a flash bashed the King over his head with the Spooky Sword's hilt. The King was knocked to his hands and knees. Kris was about to bash his head again, to knock him unconscious, but his arms instead harmlessly flopped to his sides, and the King began to mimic what he'd said before Ralsei...

Kris' blood began to boil. He could only move his eyes to see what transpired. The King, acting out a poor man driven to violence by grief and hatred. Ralsei, being fooled completely by the King's honeyed words and saddened tone. Ralsei began to walk over to him, and Kris begged him with his eyes not to heal the King. Susie, even though she had been healed, was incapable of stopping Ralsei from her mental exhaustion. Red Buster took a lot out of her, apparently. Ralsei then passed by Kris, the living statue. The prince gave the human a passing glance and looked directly at where Kirs' eyes were. But he didn't do any of the things Kris begged him to do. Instead, Kris received a smile filled with the one thing that drove Kris mad, yet made the most sense. His naive outlook, his overall kindness and willingness to forgive, it all shone in that one grin. It was hope.

Ralsei walked over to the King and held a paw over him. He whispered a few words that Kris could hear completely in the tense moments.

'_Lo, may the dreams of the fallen not falter here, and be reawakened within our reality. May they gain strength, and seize their dreams with the hope I bestow upon them.'_

Yellow flashed over the King, and Kris looked on as he saw what he knew would repeat. Then, he, and everything around him stopped. He felt his chest begin to burn with defiance. He didn't want this to happen again. His choices _did_ matter. He and everything his friends worked for wouldn't die here. He reached into his heart, and grasped onto the one thing he knew wouldn't fail him.

_You are filled with DETERMINATION_

The first second was the hardest. He needed to overcome the will of everything he'd stolen to move. It felt like he was tearing apart every muscle in his body. But, he did move, and then he reached Ralsei. Not concerned with tact, he elbowed Ralsei in the chest and sent him rolling backward as he stood in front of the King. The bullet formed before him, with the tiniest bit more distance than it had for Ralsei.

He felt his blood run cold as the knowledge of his death filled him. In the following second, a small warmth filled his chest as the complacency of his demise shone within him. Then, in the third second, every fiber of his being extinguished the warmth as he realized what he had to do before he died. He needed to reclaim himself. He needed to save the Darklands. He needed to truly save Asriel.

So, he focused all of his determination on what he wanted most at that moment.

And, at last, he was aware of everything. The slowed cry of pain and the gasp from his two friends. The jolly grin on the King's face. And the burning in his soul. Kris, realizing what he felt, and crossed his arms and focused on everything he wanted to save. Everything he had his back to, he'd protect.

The bullet was about to touch his arms, and flashes filled his mind. Waking up surrounded in golden flowers. Being saved by Toriel. Being challenged by Toriel. Greeting Sans and Papyrus. Running away from Undyne. Getting spammed by Alphys. Dancing before cameras with Mettaton. The silent and remorseful walk with Asgore. Hugging Asriel.

Killing everyone in the Ruins. Killing everyone in Snowdin. Defeating Undyne. Slaying Muffet. Hunting the ones in Hotland. Fighting Sans. Again and again. And being forced into the abyss.

In the last seconds before impalement, he remembered everything in the Darklands. Scaring Susie, escaping impalement. Meeting Ralsei and Lancer. Embracing the beauty of this shadowed world. Embarrassing Susie and Ralsei-

Kris summoned his sword and focused everything into it. It shifted into a shield, and the bullet knocked against it. Pulsing red crashed against the pale spade, but Kris was still knocked back across the room. He crashed against the ground and was unfortunate enough to see his friends be knocked aside by the spades as well.

The King grabbed him and hoisted him up with his giant hands. "**Well, aren't you proud of yourself? It seems this time you Lightners aren't as quick to abandon us. But, let me let you in on a little secret.**" Kris' ribs were crushed by his incomprehensible grip strength. He gasped out in pain, spittle flying out of his mouth. He flopped forward in the King's grasp, and his eyes were blinded by the glowing spade aimed right at his skull. "**Quiet people piss me off.**" He said with a grin. Kris spat at the King's face. _'How's that for quiet?' _He thought rebelliously.

Suddenly, the King of Spades was knocked forward, sending Kris sprawling onto the floor. It was better than getting crushed like rotten fruit, at least. Lying on the ground, he glanced up to see Susie, leaning onto her axe that sizzled with the usage of magic.

"Hands off... my friend..." She said, huffing and puffing.

"**You...?! You think you can defeat me in your state! I'll-"** A pleasant light blue light surrounded him, and he began to slump on the floor. He was still grumbling, though. "**You...! YOU... sweet little...**pumpkins..." And with that, the King was spared. Or roofied. Who cares, at least no one died.

Kris, being the tough little megalomaniac, got back up to see Susie looking at him with her yellow reptilian eyes, revealed by the hair that had been pushed out of the way by her endless movement. Her eyes were strangely... kind. Kris smirked at her. "Good plan, using Ral's pacify spell. I wish I had thought of it." Speaking of Ralsei, he saw him walking over to Kris, concern shining through his shadowy face. Kris was then hug-tackled by the goat, who then grasped Kris' shoulders.

"Are you alright?! Oh jeez, Kris, why are you so reckless? You could've been seriously hurt!" He said immediately, but then stopped and looked at the ground. "I... I'm sorry. I healed him, which let him do... all that. You two have been saving me since you got here... I'm just another preacher like he said... I guess kindness isn't the answer."

Susie put her hand on the sweet pea's shoulder. "Ral, that's not true. Sure, there's always going to be some things that can't be talked out. Everyone has to fight eventually." She said, glancing at her feet, then Kris, then focusing on both Kris and Ralsei. "But, you can't always go in ready to kill everyone. If you do that, then everyone leaves you behind. We need to want to spare, but willing to fight..." Susie stopped talking for a second and tapped one of her claws against her chin. "I really want to give you a saying that will explain everything simply..."

"Don't kill, and don't _be _killed," Kris said automatically. Then he did his best to hide what those words meant to him by standing up. As he did this, Lancer came sliding into the hall. He had a droopy look on his face. "Hey guys, you might wanna leave as soon as possible..."

"...why?" Susie asked her friend slowly. He seemed to drop even more. "Because... I told everyone that you were fighting my dad, and they remembered how some of them got thrashed by Susie, and now... they're storming the castle to capture you all."

A tense silence filled the air. Kris turned to Susie. "...you had ONE job Susie." Susie raised her claws up in surrender. "Arright, I got it. But, they attacked me first!"

"That's a flimsy excuse and you know it. C'mon, let's go," Kris walked over to the other end of the room, his friends following close behind. But, then Ralsei stopped in his tracks. Kris noticed this and turned to his friend.

"Um... I guess this is goodbye..." Kris didn't even realize they'd have to leave Ralsei behind. "I just want to say..." The prince pulled down his hat over his face. Kris recognized the ribbon in the hem. "That... I..."

"Ralsei, could you _please_ take off the hat. I can't hear you under it." Susie asked in her own gruff way. Ralsei stopped for a second, then took off the hat. Kris' eyes flashed with images of Asriel overlapping Ralsei. The same snow-white fur, same droopy ears...

Kris then began to focus on the differences. Like the pink horns and the redness of his cheeks. And the glasses, which were somehow appealing.

"I'm glad I got to meet you guys. If you guys come back, I'll back you some cakes, alright?" Kris glanced at his friend, who look as dumbfounded as Kris felt. But, they both straightened themselves out for a second.

"Yeah, of course." They both said in sync and turned back to where the fountain was, waving as they ran from the booming knocks behind them. The hallway was dark. Darker than anything Kris had seen before. But, they continued on, until they came across the iridescent pillar flowing straight to the sky. Kris and Susie sighed at the overwhelming beauty of what they began to witness. It flowed upwards, and Kris put his hand against it and felt it sink into the chilling darkness.

"Well... here we are. Journey's end." Kris said wistfully. Then, he closed his eyes and felt his soul glow before him. He felt his entire being be intertwined with this fountain, and he could suddenly see the pillar in his mind. He opened his eyes and turned to his friend. A smile covered him, and a blinding light filled the room.

[**Welp, back to the bold text. Hey, it's ya boi, back with another end of the chapter. This is the part where this story becomes a _story_ and not a reinterpretation of a game. Where we lose the 'fan' and just become _fiction_. I'm looking forward to it, and I hope you all do as well. Thank you for reading, be sure to hit the buttons to tell me how you feel, and I'll see you next chapter. Which'll be a lotta 'filler', I guess.**]

**Love this chapter too.**


	15. Home

Noises of the destructive verity hit Kris' eardrums as he returned to the Surface. Along with a grumbling friend, who tumbled alongside him in the dark space they occupied. Eventually, Susie found the light switch, and light filled the room. Kris shut his eyes against the insane light before him. "Damn, was it always this bright..?" Kris complained as he rubbed the sunspots out of his eyes, and glanced around the toy room. Strange memories began to fill his mind as he looked around. He saw a bunch of cards and jigsaw pieces scattered around the floor, with a checkerboard randomly set in the middle of the purple carpet. And it seems that the last game that was played in this room was 52 Pick Up.

"We've probably just got _way_ too used to the Darkworld."

"That was a terrible movie." Kris said automatically, then stopped as he felt something on the roof of his mouth. He opened his mouth and put a finger in to take out whatever was stuck in there. Then he shuddered at the marshmallow scented sticker that came out. It was definitely dipped in chocolate, but he must've absentmindedly been licking at it when he was...

"Yeah... remind me to never eat anything vaguely marshmallow scented ever again, alright?" Kris said as he flicked the sticker back onto the ground. It landed next to a suspiciously worn stuffed animal. It was definitely missing an eye. "We should probably go. Who knows how long we've been in there."

'_There's definitely going to be some rumors when we get back to school tomorrow..._' The human thought, though he'd never speak such a thing outloud. He followed Susie out of the room, just now noticing her lack of a tail. He shrugged it off, not really caring about her extremities. When they exited, they ended up standing and looking at the room they had first entered to get wrapped up in that shadowy mess. "Hey, remember that time you slammed me against the lockers and basically said that my entire existence was completely inconsequential and worth less than nothing? Good times." Kris said with surprising venom. That must've really gotten under his skin to only know say it long after the fact. Hell, even _he _was surprised how bitter he was. But the thing that surprised Kris the most was how badly Susie flinched at his words.

"...y..." A single vowel carried across the wind to grace Kris' ears. "What?" He said reflexively.

"I'm sorry... I just wanted to get under your skin at the time." Susie apologized, her back towards him. "It's okay. I forgive you."

"...what?" Susie turned to him. "I forgive you, Lizard Breath. C'mon, what else are friends for other than to accidentally hurt each other's feelings and forgive each other once they realized how much it had hurt them?" Apparently when Kris was bitter, he said extremely extensive sentences. For a moment, Susie didn't say or do anything, and Kris was sure he was going to get socked in the shoulder. '_Wait, socked?'_

But, instead he got reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Kris?" Susie asked him, looking at him with her vibrant yellow eyes. "Yeah Violet?" Kris wasn't the best at nicknames, but at least he's consistent at using them.

Susie then gave him a grin and looked him exactly where his eyes were. "Let's go back again tomorrow."

"Of course. Last one here tomorrow has to apologize to Lancer's subjects." Kris said with a chuckle. A small laugh escaped Susie's lips. Or... whatever dinosaurs have. Listen, I'm not an archaeologist, alright! "Sure, whatever punk." She said, then walked off out of the school, leaving Kris behind to watch her leave. _'That's all w- **I'm **good at, huh?'_ He asked himself as he stood in the empty halls of his dull school, wishing he could walk with Susie home. The lowering sun shined in all of the outside windows, and Kris sighed as he pulled out his phone.

_Ring...Ring..._

"Kris!" Exclaimed a concerned voice through his phone. "Where have you been?! I waited for 45 minutes in the car, and you never showed up!"

"I... was hanging out with a friend." Why did Kris' chest burn as he said that? A small silence came from Toriel, then a warm voice met his ears. "A friend, huh? Well... I'll make an exception this time. But please at least let me know when you're going off with a friend for hours on end. Oh... and you're going straight to bed when you get here, so be sure to enjoy the walk home." Kris laughed nervously. He could _feel_ the harsh look Toriel was giving him through his phone. "Love you, dear." Toriel finished.

"Love you too." Toriel hung up, and Kris shoved his phone back in his pocket, then looked down at his sweater. Green and yellow, huh? Well... at least it didn't have two yellow stripes. Then, he strolled his way out of the school, and into the serene town he called Home.

[XXXXX]

Kris wandered around down, and came across a church in the southern part of town. There, the Delta Rune hung over the doorway in colored glass. In front of it stood a green lizard man. Kris walked over to him, and words began to form before he'd even thought of what he wanted to say.

"Hey, could I get some of the-"

"No, Kris," The green lizard said softly. "You may not have any of the... '_sick juice' _we give out at the church. You can come get some on Sunday, like you did _yesterday_." Kris felt a tenseness in his chest, but walked off anyways. All that talk of juice was making him thirsty.

[XXXXX]

Kris waved to Undyne, and she initially gave him a reminiscent glare, but her expression softened when she recognized him. "Kris, how's the old man doin'?" She asked as she pulled him in for a noogie. Kris knew better than to resist an officer, so he reluctantly got noogied. At least she couldn't mess up his hair. "Asg- Dad's doing fine." Kris made a note to go check up on his adoptive father. Or ex-adoptive father, if he knew Toriel as good as he did.

"Yeah, he really loves working at Flower King, huh?" Bingo.

"Yeah, Dad's always been crazy about gardening. Anyways, how's it goin with Alphys?"

"Who? Is this 'Alphys' a criminal?" Undyne said, an excite grin on her face as she began cracking her knuckles.

"Well, not yet, but if she has her way, she might be able to steal something really valuable..." Kris couldn't resist the temptation.

"What?! What's that criminal going to steal?!"

"Your heart."

"..." The fish warrior's face grew still. Than she laugh hard and loud like she always does. "_Ahahahahhahahaha! Wow, you really are Asgore's kid, huh? Well, enough troublemaking. Go on, Toriel is probably waiting for you."_

Kris was sent off with various questions on what Asgore's past looked like for his flirting to be considered hereditar- passed down.

[XXXXX]

Kris' body lead him to Catty's house, where he was smothered in an 'Auntie Hug'. "Krissy!" The fluffy cat said as she held him, rocking back in forth. Never had a name instilled such raw annoyance in Kris. "It's been so long! How have you been?" She asked him, still absorbing him in her poofy fur. He tapped her twice on the side, and it got her to let go.

"I've been... fine, Aunt Catty."

"Well, you have grown a lot bigger since I last saw you. I remember when you tried so hard to get Asriel to let you party with us _big kids_." She said with the most unintentionally condescending giggle possible. "I tried to mess with you and say you could hang out if you got us some of the burgers from the Diner uphill... and you did!" Catty began to snicker at him.

"So... Kris... you wanna hang out?" Kris inhaled sharply. "Nah, I personally like my wallet, though you're going to let me hang out with Asriel when he comes home on Friday." He said, leaving no room for backtalk or argument as he walked away. He spotted Hathy, and decided to walk over to her house.

All he got was more of the same story, with an added glare towards Catty that was paid back in kind. He hoped with all his being that these weren't the kinds of people Azzy hung out with intentionally.

[XXXXX]

Kris saw a hoodie wearing skeleton from across the street. Memories of bad times flooded his mind.

He turned the other way.

[XXXXX]

Kris looked up at the worn down shop. "Flower King" was written in worn out paint. Flowers were sprouting from every spot imaginable. Kris looked off to the side of the building, and he saw a... _well-used _pink truck that obviously belonged to Asgore. To be honest, he always felt kinda bad for Asgore when it came to his marriage. Kris had wondered what would've happened if Monsters weren't sealed Underground, and Toriel and Asgore's marriage wasn't strained by politics and grief of their lost children. Now that he knew, he felt even worse.

He walked in, and saw a giant fluffy goat watering some flowers. His back was turned, and Kris could see how vibrant his pink flowered shirt was. _Asgore really has an obsession with flowers._

"Hold on one second, I'm almost finished watering these flowers..." He said in a voice that was tired, but nowhere near the tones of sheer exhaustion he'd had back in the Underground. When he turned to Kris, his face lit up and Kris was instantly brought up in an aggressive bear hug and shaken like a soda can. When he was thoroughly shaken, Asgore let him go.

"Oh! Sorry, I know you hate hugs... It's so good to see you!" Asgore said, barely keeping face with a smile that seemed to send his dark shadows away. But just for a moment.

"Asg- Dad." Kris corrected himself. He'd never gotten used to calling Asgore 'dad', since... Well, it was either Toriel's doing or Flowey's, but it was never in the stars. "It's not that I don't like hugs, it's just that you shake me up like a drink everytime." He said, putting a hand to his head, trying to still the blood rushing through his body. "Anyway, it's nice to see you too."

A silence passed between them. Then, Asgore clapped his hands. "Oh! I wanted to show you something, come on in the back." He said kindly, ushering Kris to the back.

Inside were seven flowers in containers. Kris' mind flashed with memories of that room with his name on the coffin. Wait... was it his name? He couldn't really recall what was on it. In any case, there were seven flowers, each shaded the same color as the 7 traits that made up the human soul. Orange Bravery. Light blue Patience. Blue Integrity. Green Kindness. Yellow Justice. Purple Perserverance. But, the trait he knew best was replaced by the flower he knew best.

A single golden flower replaced where his soul would've been. Asgore put his hand on Kris' shoulder. "These seven flowers were a part of your mother's bouquet when we got married all those years ago. I kept the flowers."

"That's... sweet." Kris said, trying to hold back his overwhelming urge to tell Asgore that he was _way_ too clingy.

"Anyways, that's all I wanted to show you." Asgore said, embarrassed by the room. Him saying this made Kris notice why. It was a dark room that was very much unkempt, with papers he knew were overdo bills hidden under his bed. Wasn't the best state a kid would want to see their father in. He knew now why Kris didn't like to visit.

"Alright, it was nice seeing you." Kris began to walk out of the building, but was stopped by his father, who gave him a bouquet. "For your mother. Our little secret." Asgore winked at him, a grin breaking his golden beard. Kris smiled back, knowing full well exactly this bouquet was going to end up. He just didn't have the heart to tell Asgore. So, with a goodbye, and a second, much less painful hug to his father, Kris walked out.

[XXXX]

Kris loved the magical storage he'd gotten from the Darkworld. He found he could hold things in their on the Surface too. Just a LOT less stuff. But, it was really convenient to put away stuff you didn't want to carry, like a bouquet of flowers. Kris sighed as he found is body had dragged him to the hospital. Then he thought he might want to get checked up, as Asgore had swished him around like a glass of non-alcoholic beverage. He stepped inside, to see one of the clumpy mouth monsters wearing the nurses hat that was completely overshadowed by her red lipstick.

"Ah!, Kris! You've come to visit, haven't you?" She asked him, receiving an automatic nod from Kris. "Well, would you like to play the piano like always? The residents all love it when you do." Kris felt like he was being guilt tripped into doing so, but he agreed and walked over to the tiny piano.

As he pressed a key, a foul note screeched out. He decided to test out another note, and another horrible note came out as well. "You... usually play that with more... grace." His eyelid twitched in response, but he said nothing as he thought about what he was going to play. A small piece of him wondered why he was bothering, and a painful memory responded for him. '_Because you can, it means you **have** too.'_

He exhaled as he remembered the one song he was certain he could play off the top of his head. Memories of a crying monster reflected in his mind as he played the sad tone. He felt as if he was playing way better than usual, as he knew exactly which note to play to continue the song. Then, he suddenly stopped, knowing he wouldn't be able to handle the memories His Theme would bring him.

"Kris...?" The nurse asked him. "Are you okay? You seem a bit pale."

"I'm fine, don't worry." Kris responded, then watched as his body walked past the nurse into one of the rooms patients were in. He spotted a pair of deers talking, one he recognized and another he vaguely remembered.

"So... I haven't finished that game we started," Noelle uttered to the grizzled, sickly monster on the bed. Her blonde hair sharply contrasted his messy black hair. But they both had the same brown skin and antlers. "I've been waiting for you to come home before I continue."

"Noey..." The man said kindly. "You shouldn't wait for me to come back to finish the game..." Noelle's eyes widened at her father. "Bring it here! I'm bored outta my mind here anyway!" Kris already liked this deer. He knew how to read the room, and completely turn it on it's head.

"_Dad,"_ Noelle complained, but a smile was forming on her lips regardless. "Fine, next time, I'll bring it, okay?"

"Atta girl." He smiled at her. "So, about this girl you've been talking about...?" Kris then cleared his throat loudly, warning them of his presence. "O-Oh! Kris!" Noelle exclaimed, surprised by his appearance. "D-didn't see you there..." Noelle then took a cursory glance at the clock on the wall. "Oh! I have to go, see you later Dad! Talk to you soon, Kris!" She then clomped her way out of the room, a faint blush on her face. Kris suddenly regretted not listening to that part of the conversation. A small grin came onto his face as he walked over to Noelle's father.

"Hey, Krismas! I'm surprised you didn't stick around and get the gossip! I know you'd play a great prank with that info!" He laughed, bumping his hand against the bed he was sitting in.

"I know, it was a missed opportunity for trouble," his grin began to grow. "But, I'm pretty sure the spoke I gave her will satisfy me for now."

They both shared a grin, but then Rudy's grin began to fade. _Wait, Rudy?_

"Listen, I'm going to go all dad on you for a bit, if that's alright." The reindeer asked him, and Kris nodded his compliance. "Can you be there for Noelle for me?" The reindeer looked down at his legs. "I won't be able to stand with her in my condition, and we both know she scares easily."

"Like a deer in headlights."

"Yeah. She's scared of everything. The dark, spiders, bugs, even humans under the bed. _Kris._"

"Hey, if I can do the prank, I'm doing the prank."

"Yeah yeah, anyways, I want you to be there for her, and show her that not everything is as scary as she thinks it is." Kris nodded his agreement, and said goodbye as he left the hospital, thinking of how he was supposed to be there for a person he'd just met.

[XXXXX]

Kris ran into Noelle a second time, where she was standing beside a pair of brass gates. She spotted him, and waved at him to come closer.

"Hey Kris!" She said cheerily as he walked to her. "Did you and Susie get lost when you went looking for chalk?" She asked, and Kris shrugged. They had gotten lost, but not in a way you'd expect. "A-anyways, I have a question..."

"What is it?"

"H-how's Susie? I-I mean, what's she like?" She tripped over her words, and her eyes skittered from left to right. Kris snorted at his friend. "She's pretty cool, once you get past her tough, mean-girl hide."

"R-really?!" She asked, her voice suddenly getting louder. "That's great! I-I mean, I'm glad your partner is nicer than she seems. M-maybe me and Berdly could work with you for the project..." Kris then put a hand to his face. "I forgot about the project... what's it on?"

"Uhhh... Alphys give you the assignment herself, so she'll tell you in the morning." Kris sighed deeply, placing a hand on his chest.

"Thanks for the warning, Noey."

"No problem, Krissy."

Kris' eye twitched as the terrible name was uttered. "... You could've just said not to call you that." Noelle gave him a cheeky smile. Kris groaned and rolled his eyes as he waved her goodbye as he walked to the north of town.

[XXXXX]

Kris opened the door to a cozy diner, the smell of burgers and other greasy delicacies filling the air. Kris' stomach growled at the food, and he put his hand over it to calm it. He spotted Catti working as a waitress, but didn't bother to talk to her. He didn't want to distract the employees. As he walked over to the counter, he saw the shopkeeper from Snowdin, and he was briefly reminded of the brimming warmth of the building compared to the cold of the outside. At least he didn't have any of... _those _memories of her.

"How are you, hun?" She asked in her country accent. "It's been a while since I've seen you, hasn't it? I remember that you and your family would come here every Sunday to eat together. Then, things happened, and you and Azzy came around to get some hot chocolate and draw on the windows." She seemed to smile a bit, but it dimmed when she looked at Kris. Then, she went behind the counter, and handed him a cup.

"Here, have some Hot Chocolate. On the house. Now, don't be a stranger, y'here?" Kris took the cup gratefully, and thanked her as he went to sit in one of the booths. For some reason, he found himself staring at the seat across from him. He looked down at the cup, and took a sip. Well, it ended up being a gulp, that emptied the entire cup. As he felt the heat slide down his throat, and warmth fill him to his fingertips, his throat began to tighten, and when he put his hand to his face, he found tears. He wasn't heaving, or drawing attention to himself. Silent tears streaming down his face, without a known reason. Then, memories of Asriel filled his mind. Them playing in the snow, making snowmonsters. Sitting out on the grass on spring. Eating cake with his family. These memories brought more tears, and Kris didn't understand. Those weren't his memories, but he felt like they could've been.

"..._I'm sorry I couldn't save you."_ Those words were whispered by him, and they faded into nothing. Because his apologies were worthless to the dead.

[XXXXX]

Kris walked inside of his home, and locked the door behind him, and saw Toriel looking at him. He waved at her with a smile, but he didn't really want to talk at the moment. He still felt as if he was mourning what never was. So, he said his goodnight to Toriel, and stepped into his room.

He looked back at his empty side of the room. The birdcage creaked as he walked past it, and sat on his bed. He wished he could get rid of the Asriel's stuff. He didn't want the things he'd never have beside him as he slept. But, he focused on what Gaste said that morning. _Morning? It feels like I've been here for months... _

He turned over and brought his blanket over himself as he thought long and hard about what he was going to do. Regain his soul. Go back to the Underground. SAVE everyone. As he determinedly thought of his plans, he fell asleep.

Kris' body shook him until he was barely awake. His bones rattled beneath his flesh. His mind was slow, so he couldn't even stop himself as he tumbled onto the ground. His body acted on it's own, as it stood up and walked into the center of the room. His hand was raised out, and his fingers were spread harshly, as if he was trying to bend them to their limits.

His hand plunged into his chest, and everything was coated in red. It felt like his entire being was being crushed, and his vision was splitting. Suddenly, Kris pulled out the foreign soul from his chest, and the Angle felt himself begin to form a false body. He was tossed harshly into the rusty birdcage, the gate slamming shut as he crashed into it.

Kris held out his hand, and a knife was pulled out of the mist. He stumbled over to the cage like a drunkard, and slammed the blade's handle against the cage. The soul could see the body, but nothing else. And he saw the smile it gave him as he was pulled out via rusty wagon out of the house and into the street.

And a single glance to the soul revealed the _real_ Kris' intentions. And the soul, filled to the brim with terror, did the one thing that would seal the world's fate.

_You called for help, in you hour of need. **And someone is coming**_

[**End of Chapter 1! We did it boys, retelling this story is finally over. And now we're going into the part I've been looking forward to the most. Thank you all for reading through this, I appreciate all of you, and I hope you all enjoyed this story. And I hope I don't disappoint you all with all the 'original' content I have to make. I'll see you all next time, and thank you for giving me this chance.**]


	16. Inner Hatred

The soul had nothing but his captor to look at. He didn't have eyes to see anything with, and all of his senses were honed onto the thing dragging him into the street, as he felt his cage rattle. He couldn't even look away. He was stuck with whatever was left in Kris' body.

_What do you want? _The disembodied soul chimed. No mouth to speak with, so he did his best to send his thoughts towards the shambling figure in front of him. It turned towards the red heart, and gave a huge smile. "Oh, _you _know exactly what I want." The words felt dull and weightless, but the Angel was still shaking in his metaphorical boots.

He _really _wished he could form that soul body again. But, not enough room. It irked the Angel to no end. He was successfully captured, by some creature who can barely use their body with a damn **birdcage**. He wanted any sort of body so he could deck whoever was in Kris' body.

Then, words cut straight into his soul.

"Kris?"

His world was filled in as his vision shifted to his body. The sky was a early gray, and the buildings surrounding them seemed to tower as shadows extended their length. He could only barely make out Susie's form in front of him. But, as much as he wanted to warn her and get away, he couldn't move. But, this was different from the immobility he'd experienced in the Darkworld. It was like his mind was entirely disconnected from his body. He could still feel everything that Kris was doing. Like the feeling of gripping a knife's hilt, hidden inside his sleeve.

"What the hell are you doing out here?" Susie asked him, as she stepped over to Kris.

"I could ask you the same thing." He felt sick, feeling his own mouth speak against his will. Susie tilted her head towards Kris, but carried on regardless.

"I... thought you called out to me..." Kris never wanted to cut his own toungue out as much as he did in that moment. Again, it was all his fault his friend was in a crisis. While he was there, just out of sight.

Then, trying to avoid the embarrassment of admitting she'd gone out in the middle of the night for his sake, Susie glanced past Kris and narrowed her eyes. "What's with the rusty birdcage," she asked. "Taking out your invisible parrot for a midnight stroll?" She looked back down at the cage. "...on a wagon?"

Kris felt his body's grip tighten on his blade. But, a burning in his chest was just enough to keep him from moving his right arm. Without determination, Kris would've died a thousand times over. But, at least he knew how straining it was to keep someone from using their body. He knew that with his LV so low, he couldn't muster up the raw determination to regain control easily.

"...yeah. You know how I do weird things, yeah?" Kris hoped Susie would realize this wasn't _him_. But he couldn't even muster enough strength to give her a meaningful look while keeping her from being brutally impaled.

**Stop trying to regain control, _Angel_. **

_No_. He responded, his arm shaking slightly under his sleeve.

"You've been talking a bit weirder than usual."

_What do you mean 'weirder than usual?'_ Kris wished he could say.

"What do you mean, 'weirder than usual'? I'm just tired, it's like eleven right now." Kris couldn't even be mad about the monster controlling his body using the words he wanted to say as a disguise. No, wait, he can and is. But his fear of the being controlling his body overwhelmed his pettiness.

"Yeah... why is your arm shaking?" Does this dinosaur have god damn night vision? Well, with her glowing yellow eyes, it should've been expected.

It put his other arm over the trembling one. "I'm _really _tired right now, what can I say?" Kris was as well. He was losing steam, and pretty soon it would be game over for Susie. He wished he had the strength to disperse the knife, but it'd take a lot more power to do that as opposed to keeping an arm from moving.

"Well then, we should go back to bed. Catch you later, Blueberry."

Susie made one of the worst mistakes of what seemed to be her very short life and turned her back to Kris. His arm shook even more as he fought over control of his right arm. He was losing. He needed energy, fast. Maybe he could draw on some of his determination...

As soon as he reached within his being, he felt something dark and sinister lash out at his touch. As it made contact, a memory of unbridled fear returned to his mind. He was about to curse, but he felt as if a curse was already overcoming him as he felt his arm go free and begin it's fatal arc at Susie's back. No matter where it hit her, if a monster took an attack of unbridled killing intent, they wouldn't last.

He needed to do something tiring. Like a spell that would immediately alert Susie. Time seemed to stop as he searched his mind for any useful information. But, thanks to a certain person's influence, he was having a hard time pulling up memories of his past intentionally. So, he just remembered the last spell he'd done, and replicated it to the best of his ability. Good thing it was the separation spell.

His mind latched onto the feeling of his consiousness being pulled out of his body. Then, he felt the dark tendrils of...'s soul snaking at his own soul. He snapped them when he sent a painful thought into their mind.

A floating red heart suddenly shoved Susie ahead, out of the blade's path, and onto a road. He could hear Susie about to say something, when he cut her off with a chime from his soul. _They're going to stab you! **Run!**_

She turned back, as if she needed proof for that statement, and was saved, again, by the Angel's soul when the human tried another slash. With Kris' heaving from the sudden exertion the separation spell caused and the two full powered slashes, Susie immediately turned and ran into the town's alleyways, leaving the red soul to float after her.

As they ran, the Angel's body began to form once more. Soon, he was a red outline of Kris' body, and when Susie glanced back at him, pivoted on her heel and tried to swing at his face. The soul was shocked by the sudden attack, so he only had time to cross his arms to block the punch, which went right through him.

_S-Susie!_ _What the hell?!_ He tried to shout at her, but he could only chime his thoughts into her mind. She stepped away from him, and was about to yell something at him when he snapped at her. _Quiet! Do you **want** them to find us?!_

_"_What do you mean, _them? You're Kris, aren't you?!"_ She whispered-yelled at him. _Kind of_, he replied.

"What do you mean..."

_Listen, Violet. Why don't we hide in a suspicious yet well concealed alleyway before I, the red glowing specter, get us both found and killed. _Kris could tell she nodded by the streaks of yellow her eyes made when she did. Then they both walked into a small alley, which would have been uncomfortable for Kris if he wasn't essentially a blood red Napstablook.

"Arright, talk."

_Okay, I'm the Kris you've spent all of today with. That Kris is a combination of the embers of a soul he had left after I was forced into his body, and a... world destroying demon named Chara that has a grudge against me. Any questions?_

"Why are they attacking me?"

_Probably because Evil Kris wants to rid himself of anything that was forced onto him by me, and Chara wants to do it to... teach me a lesson. Anything else? _He really wanted to sassily tap his foot against the pavement, but his feet faze through the ground already, so it was a risk he wasn't dumb enough to take. Instead, he crossed his arms and raised a red eyebrow at Susie. She, in turn, scoffed and rolled her illuminous yellow eyes.

"How are we going to beat them?"

_Good question, let's sneak up on them so I can ch-_

Suddenly, the human amalgamate charged into their hiding spot, and the specter tried to Check them.

**Kris**

**LV 20**

**Has a distinct hatred for you, and everything associated with you.**

_Run!_ He said as he turned back to run after his friend. He could feel his red heart begin to become more defined as a FIGHT began between them. He kicked off as he ran from Kris. He felt his legs faze through the ground with every stride. He knew the sole reason he was outpacing the reality ending entity behind him was solely because of his stamina. Or, the fact he didn't have it, so he couldn't lose it in that form. Sometimes being a ghost was good.

Then, Kris lunged at the Angel, blade pointed at his soul. He knew this fact, so he turned around and covered his his heart with his right arm, and watched as it fazed through his phantom arm. He didn't know how he felt the pain of losing his arm in that moment, but he did, and it only made him run even faster after Susie, leaving a fading red shape behind.

[XXXXX]

Running away, Susie led them into the forest at the south of town. There, she stopped to talk a breather, while Kris dumped all his knowledge of their situation onto her. Though, he wasn't exactly calm about it thanks to his nefwfound left-handedness .

_They're LV is 20, Susie! We can't fight them like this!_ His face twisted as he screamed out his frustrations. Well, he _thought_ out his frustrations, but he wasn't in the mood to correct himself.

"W-What does... that mean?" She huffed, gasping for air with the lungs he was 80% sure she didn't have.

_It means they're at the same strength Chara was when he destroyed my universe! And I cannot gain enough LOVE to even be a fight against them._

"How... do you... get stronger... with love?" Susie looked at him weirdly, and the false body sighed as he shook his head.

_Not love as in affection. I mean L.O.V.E. As in** Level of Violence**._

_"I think... I'd have enough to be a match for them..." _Susie said softly, her words drenched in a morbid confidence.

_Susie, your LV is 1. _He cut away any misconceived notions of her own strength or violent tendencies with his words alone.

She stared blankly at his red figure, as if she'd just been told with the most confusing statement in the world. "You think... I'm not violent enough to stop them?"

_No, I mean... **we don't have time to talk! They're going to find us again, and we need to find some kind of plan!**_

"... Don't worry, we can do this." The specter turned to the dinosaur, who looked oddly at peace while surrounded by trees at one of the darkest hours. _How can you be sure?_ His soul hummed at her. "Because, we're the Lightner Formation. Human and Monster. And a part of the... Fun Gang."

The ghost snorted, unable to actually laugh like he wished he could. He'd really taken having a body for granted. Then, he found his solution spontaneously in a memory.

_Human and Monster... Susie, can you stand up for a second?_

Susie grunted agreement, and stood up as asked. The specter walked over to her, and looked down at his hand. Then, hesitating, he put his ghostly hand into her torso. He felt his hand brush against something, and Susie immediately backed away, shuddering and barely on her feet.

"T-that was terrible!" She whispered hoarsely. "We're never doing that again, got it?!"

The specter's eye twitched as he stepped over to his friend. _Susie, I value your feelings and all that, but I'm literally missing an arm right now. And it didn't exactly feel good while it was sliced off of the rest of me._

"You think I care? I'm not doing that again!" Her whisper didn't sound too quiet, so she stopped, leaving her anger hanging in the air. _Fine. We won't do it again..._

"Thank god. I never want you inside me ag..." Susie caught herself and stopped talking. _So, since we aren't going to do that plan, I've got something for you to do instead. I want you to scavenge around this forest, look for some sharp object, and **slit your own throat with it**, because I promise you that's going to be way less painful than what Chara is going to do to you. _He snapped back at Susie, taking another step toward her.

_This isn't a game like it was in the Darkworld. This is life and death, and we don't have any magic to heal ourselves with here. _He focused his soul into his fingertips and gripped one of Susie's broad shoulders. _So, you shouldn't complain about a bit of discomfort, while speaking to the _**disembodied soul_ who has just _lost his arm! He could feel a bit of tension as his fingers began to bite into her shoulders, making her grit her sharp teeth.**

The soul recognized her bullheadedness, and sighed as he removed his hand. _Please, Susie. They took everything from me already. And I can't... lose you too. Just, trust me on this, ok?_ He looked up into Susie's eyes, and saw them soften.

"Fine. Just do what you gotta..." Susie stepped back from him, and the Angel walked over to her. _Thanks. Also, you might lose consciousness for a couple seconds._

"Wha..."

_Grit your teeth._ The Angel then plunged his arm inside of her torso, and gripped directly onto her soul. He saw as her entire body began to unravel before his eyes. She was turning to dust, but her soul hadn't shattered yet. That... wasn't good, probably. He breath turned ragged at he sent some of his determination into Susie's soul. It was like a process. Grip the feeling filling his 'body' and send it down his arm into her soul.

While he did this, the Angel apologized for everything he'd ever done as he ripped out Susie's soul from the powdery mound that was once her body. He could feel it begin to pull itself apart in his hand, so he quickly drew it into his chest. It was drawn to his heart, and it seemed to snap against it, like it was being buttoned.

The dust from her body swirled around his red form. He prepared himself for how being fused with a monster was going to feel. He didn't prepared for feeling to suddenly burst in portions of his body. And he definitely wasn't prepared for the shifting and contortion his body made to fit his form. But, the weirdest part was the fact that he didn't have organs, or blood. He couldn't stop shuddering while he received his body. When he was finished becoming... whatever he was, he put his new arm against his head. His skin was strangely rough, and seemed to scrape against itself.

"S... Susie?" He asked, hoping he didn't actually kill her.

_I COULD'VE DIED?! The words echoed in Kris' skull. He sighed in relief, and did his best to calm her with his mind._

"Y-Yeah, but I made sure you wouldn't." Hopefully sending determination directly into her soul didn't have any adverse side effects. **_Yeah, like that_** **_helps me not be angry at how you did something that could have killed me!_**

"It's better to have possibly died than definitely die. Anyway, I think we can deal with Chara and Kris now." **_Speaking of Kris, what's your name? _**She asked, and he had an image of her putting a hand against her chin, looking at him. "..." He couldn't say it. It seemed that Gast- Dr. G was still determined not to let his name be spoken. "I don't have one anymore."

**_That doesn't make sense._**

"Like how we suddenly have clothes, and how you clothes disappeared when you died?"

**_Wait what? _**Susie willed their body to look down at themselves, and they were both shocked at what they were wearing. It was a pair of jeans, a purple jacket and a chest plate underneath it.

**"Damn, we look good." **They said, but the Angel caught himself. Then, he took control of the body, and forced Susie into the back of his mind. "Sorry Susie, this is _my _fight. And, I know you aren't skilled enough to last here." He heard the crunching of fallen leaves and immediately turned towards it.

**"**Well well well, look who we have here." They said, eyes gleaming red with a knife held in one hand. "You have become just like I had been, oh so long ago."

"Well, this time I'll do my best not to leave my friend to die for my selfish desires." He said as he stood across from Chara, the turning leaves of the trees mirroring the red of their eyes. He tried to draw onto to his soul, to harness the power he knew he could use. But Chara's stare made him freeze, just like it had before his end.

"I am sorry you feel that I left my brother to die. At least I didn't kill him with my own two hands."

"Yet you sent him on the path of genocidal mania, without a concern, and let me kill him." He grit his teeth. He hated arguing with Chara. Because they were both stubborn, and they both had a point.

"_Let you? _I could not have stopped you if I tried."

"Let's stop this and just fight already." He said as he focused on his magic. He knew what spell he needed, and it was a spell he'd been exposed to countless times. The Arena Spell. A snap of his fingers sent the world into a dome of black and white, with only the red of the two humans'eyes striking against it.

He turned and dodged the jab aimed straight at his skull, while Chara smiled at him. He sent his elbow straight into the human's chest, knocking them back easily. He reached out onto the magic within him, and expected to feel the tension that doing so caused him while in his human body. But instead, he easily formed his own bullets.

Red knives spiraled around him, almost hypnotically. He held his hand outward, and a single dagger formed in his hand. A grim smile formed on his face, and he could see his red eye pulsing on the reflection of his knife. His other eye was yellow, with a serpentine slit in it. He shook his head slightly. He knew that when someone gains or uses an abnormal amount of magic, their eye either pulsates with the color of their soul, or, rarely, unconsciously summons magic.

Then, he sent dozens of flying knives hurtling towards the human, whose red eyes gleamed as purely as his own, and watched as they cut through the bullets with his own blade, and he smiled while he changed their direction, sending them hurtling towards the black and red heart shining in his chest.

The human retreated, with the knives trailing him as they got faster and faster. Then, kicking up dust, Chara was suddenly hurtling towards him, dagger pointed into his chest. With his free hand, the Angel grabbed the human's wrist, pulled him towards the side, and rammed his dagger's hilt into his stomach. Chara doubled over, which left him vulnerable to the overhead elbow from his other arm. He was then flipped and, aiming his dagger at his soul, the Angel plunged the blade towards his chest.

A black tendril appeared out of the black heart and slapped against his arm, drawing blood. His arm faltered for a split second, which allowed Chara to slash at his chest, turn themselves upright, and back away by a huge margins. But, they had forgotten about his new range, and he held out his hand, and balled it into a fist, summoning a large amount of needle-like lances around Chara's immediate vicinity and sending them stabbing into their body.

But, their LV was too strong, and many of them shattered once they had made direct contact with them. Two lucky lances actually ended piercing his nape, the back of his neck, and his dominant arm. The wounds were shallow, but they were something.

"You... you should not be this strong..." They commented, red eyes trying to burrow they way into the Angel's flesh.

"Well, here's a tiny explanation." He grinned at them. "You've been dead a _lot_ longer than I have. And, I've been in a living body way longer than you have. I've already had my warm-ups, and you haven't even stretched yet."

Before they could blink, Chara was pinned down onto the ground with his left arm, surrounded by hovering blades, with one held in the Angel's hand, raised above their black heart. He glanced at it, and felt his skin prickle at the sight. It was almost completely black, except with red ve8ns crisscrossing all over it.

"Now, you can finally take your eternal dirt nap in hell." He raised the blade up, and right before he blunged down, Chara's expression changed completely.

"Please... kill me..." Kris' body whimpered, their red eyes as dead as Chara should've been. Upon hearing this, the Angel hesitated, which left him wide open for an unorthodox attack. A dark tendril grew out of the black soul, and it went to pierce the Angel's chest. Then, it pierced a red heart instead. He knew Chara would've enjoyed killing both him and Susie at the same time. But, at least this would give Susie some time to escape, as long as he persisted long enough.

His vision shifted back into his soul, and he found himself feeling no pain from the wound. Well, maybe it was because he was already dying, and he didn't have time to feel pain. He could now see Susie, and saw as she twisted out of their combined form back into her original form. He looked back at the human, whose red eyes were filled with satisfaction and... regret?

Then, he remembered something. No, _someone_. With the little strength he had left, he reached out into the soul that was killing him, and...

Kris was surrounded by darkness, that seemed to writhe because of his very presence. He looked around, and saw a small ember of red. He reached out and grabbed it.

_What do you want?_ Kris' voice formed in his mind.

"To make friends?" The Angel asked.

_Why? You've taken everything I have. My family prefers you, my friends like you more, and you even got to go on an adventure, in my body, and forced me to watch as everyone befriended the person who _**stole my name!**

"Kris... I can't give you back your body..."

_Because you have things to do, and you'll give it back once you finished having the time of** my **life?_

_"Because_ you barely have a soul anymore. Even if you had your body all to yourself, you couldn't even move. _Chara_ has been controlling this body since you evicted me. And you need to realize that Chara doesn't give a damn about what either of us want."

They were silent for a while, and the Angel felt a strangeness in the air. He didn't really have time to wait for him to find the words while he was **dying**.

_Then what else is there for me. Chara doesn't care, **you** don't care, no matter what you say. Chara and I both know that your kindness is all an act._ _Am I supposed to just fade out from existence, knowing no one will miss me when you're here to take it all from me?_

"Ehh...?" The Angel shrugged. "We could do that..."

_You really are an ass._

"Thanks, I do my best. Anyway, if you'd let me finish, we could do something no one expected for either of us."

_...What?_ Kris asked, completely invested in his answer. A red smile formed on the Angel's face.

"We become one."

_What? Kris screamed in his mind, and the dying soul quickly shushed him._

"I'll absorb your soul, and you become part of _me."_

_That's a terrible idea._

_"Better than dying while knowing no one will mourn you_." The Angel snapped at him, then sighed. "Listen, it's your choice."

A deathly silence overcame them both, with the dying soul gazing around at the writhing of the blackness overtaking Kris' body and soul. A twisting feeling was felt in both of their chests, and Kris gave his answer.

_Fine._

The Angel opened his palm. He looked at the ember, all that was left of the kid who was caught up in his deadly game.

"Just for you, I'll keep Kris as my name. Not like the world has given me much of an option." He dropped the ember in his mouth.

"I hope that's how that works." He said to himself, as he felt his mind give way as his soul began to break apart.

When he became whole,Kris could _feel_ Chara's thoughts and emotions inside of him. Their anger, their hatred, their annoyance. All directed at him. The feeling was completely mutual. Kris gripped onto his soul, and sent it outwards, forcing Chara out of his body.

"_Guess who's back!"_ He yelled into the night sky, as he felt all of the excess darkness inside his soul be forced out. He looked at Susie, the really concerned monster in front of him. He smiled at her, and felt weakness overtake his body. He stumbled forwards, and Susie started towards him as he began to fall over.

"Take me to Flower King! Northernmost part of tow..." Kris collapsed onto the forest floor, getting a faceful of dirt. _Better than death was the last through that went through his mind as he fell unconscious._

[**I hated using 'he' and the Angel for everything. My autocorrect is probably tainted from this. Well, thank you for reading the ACTUAL end of Chapter 1. Now, I'll either take a long break for Chapter 2 or write a chapter at 2 am on sundays like a crackhead. It's give or take, really. Anyway, thank you SO much for suffering through this story with me, as we set off towards true fiction. God, I'm going to screw this up so bad. Anyway, thank you for reading this garbage heap, make sure to hit the buttons that you want to hit for this, and I'll see you next Sunday.**]


	17. Side Story 1 (Interlude)

**(Warning, the following is mostly filler. Read at your own enjoyment.)**

Darkness fell around Kris. It was inky and thick, like sludge. He couldn't see anything in front of him. Or there wasn't anything there to see. He trudged on, not feeling his feet meet the ground. The world was drenched in a toxic stench that he didn't recognize.

Then, he saw a familiar figure through the sludge. A cloaked figure with a long-rimmed hat. He barely processed who he was looking at before he ran towards them. Ralsei. He went up to him and tackled him into a hug. His hat was knocked off by his sudden display of affection, as he hoisted the goat up into the air like a child would with a small animal. As he put his friend down, he finally gripped him by the shoulders, and turned him towards...

His eyes were dead. There was a giant gash across his chest, that seemed to be caving in underneath the green sweater. As he looked at him, he knew exactly who he was. The blank eyes stared past him, into something far beyond his reach. Kris opened his mouth.

"A..." His body imploded with a _fwoop_, and golden flower petals filled the air. There they floated in front of the human, and seemed to dance. Then, as Kris inhaled, they all flooded into his mouth. Petal after petal stacked within his throat, as he thrashed against the endless petals forcing their way into his windpipe. A taste of the golden flower trickled down into his stomach, floral and wild, as he felt himself slowly die, as his throat and mind burned with a single, honeyed word.

"**Asriel!**" Kris yelled as he sat upright in a bed. He then began coughing, as he realized the thing he felt trickle was asctually his saliva from thrashing around in his sleep. He looked around, and saw the same dark, depressing room he saw yesterday. Asgore's room. He was sitting in his adoptive father's bed, with him nowhere in sight. He knew for a fact Asgore wouldn't be so careless as to leave a child alone. But, he wasn't exactly a child anymore, and as he looked down at himself, coddled the bed of what should've been a king, he realized he may have been clinging onto his childhood a bit.

There were several creaks heard in the floorboards, and Kris looked up to see his father walking into the room, a plate of pancakes and sausage in his hands. Well, he couldn't see the plate in the dark room, but his nose knew best.

"Dad?" He asked, and felt himself be wrapped in a strangle-like hug. But it was without the lightheartedness he knew from yesterday. "Kris Dreemurr! What in the world happened to you last night?! I was woken up at 2 in the morning with your friend dragging you in your wagon, telling me to _fix you up!" _The fatherly concern was evident, but Kris was having a hard time answering as his lungs collapsed underneath Asgore's formidable strength. He patted Asgore on the side, telling him he needed air to breathe. Asgore let go, and Kris gasped as he forced air into his crumpled lungs. He forced himself to cough a bit to manage his airflow, and then he was back in shape to try his best to predict what Susie had told him.

"Didn't Susie explain what happened?"

"She said you told her to take you to me. Then she told me to _fix you up_ and she left for home after about ten minutes." Kris took all the information he could from his father's words, and found his lie. "I don't know what she meant with the whole _fix me up_ thing, but I think I can explain the rest."

"_Think?_" Asgore said evenly, and Kris snapped at him.

"I'm sorry, I think I'd be more sure of my answer if you didn't _force the air out of me twenty seconds ago!_" Asgore flinched at his words, and Kris found his brow was furrowed, and fists were balled up at his sides. He slowly undid his brow and relaxed his hands. "Sorry, I'm just... tired. Which is exactly why I was asleep when I was brought here." Asgore raised a golden eyebrow at him, telling him to go on. "I made friends with my project partner, Susie, yesterday. We ended up... skipping class, but purely so that we could work better as a team." Kris had to keep a laugh from escaping as Asgore tried to replicate Toriel's angry parent stare.

"Anyway, we lost track of time, so we decided to go and work together on our project after school. But, you know how Mom is when we're late." As Asgore nodded, a foreign memory of Toriel thumping her foot in the car as the Dremurr family rushed to pack for a trip. She'd left them all in her standard angry silence for the first thirty minutes of that awkward, cramped car ride. The two Dreemurrs shook their heads with a smile as they reminisced.

"I decided to sneak out and go to Susie's and work on the project. But, we couldn't remember what the project was for the life of us. With Noelle being busy with her dad, and Berdly being... Berdly, we couldn't really find someone to explain this to us. So, we brainstormed what it could be, until I ended up passing out from exhaustion." Asgore looked into Kris' face, while the human did what his face did automatically; go deadpan.

"Fine, I believe you. But, how are we going to explain this to your mother?" Kris bit back an extremely inappropriate word to use in front of Mr. Howdy himself.

"Uh... How about you say that I missed talking with you, and I decided to sneak out and visit you. Because if Mom hears I snuck out to visit a girl-"

"Why would you hanging out with a girl be any different than normal?"

"What do... _oh, I get it._ Nah, it's nothing, I can explain later. Just, please promise me that you'll do this one thing for me. Please?" Asgore's parental will crumpled immediately, and he agreed. Then, Kris shoveled his breakfast into his mouth, and ended up walking to school, waving off Asgore's offer to drive him.

As Kris walked, he unconsciously reached down over his heart and grabbed at his sweater. He breathed slowly as he tried to listen for the other person within his heart. Nothing. When he was brought back to reality, he realized he should've texted his mother. Because she was standing outside the school at that very moment. Using his instincts, aka using his eyes, he saw that there were no people outside other than her. And no one would be showing up for some time. So, he strolled over to his mother, and took his lumps.

_"Kris Dreemurr! Where in blazes have you been?_" She said as she put her hands onto his shoulders, forcing him to look directly at her. "I was with dad. Didn't he-"

"Oh, **of course it's Asgore's fault**." Kris had just signed Asgore's death certificate. But, he wasn't done with what he needed to tell her. "Mom, can I... be able to stay out late with friends, as long as I tell you before hand?" For someone who said he was going to try not to act like a kid, this was a pretty child-like thing to ask. At first, Toriel couldn't hide her shocked expression. Then, her expression softened and she rubbed the top of his head, messing up his scruffy hair even more. "As long as you warn me before hand about how long you'll be gone, I'll allow it."

"And if I'm not back by a certain time, just please assume I'm coming home late, alright?" Toriel hesitated, and Kris could see the contradictions in her mind. She wanted Kris to have friends, but she also was immensely concerned for his safety. But, Kris swished his hair to the side, and let his blood red eyes widen pleadingly. Her motherly will was shattered as Kris was taken into another bear hug. But, within the hug, he realized how warm she was compared to the chill of the autumn morning air. And, he gave a half hearted hug in response, until they broke apart.

"Alright, my child. But, don't expect me to be making big dinners if that's the case." Kris' stomach grumbled at the mere mention of Toriel's legendary cooking, and images of escargo invaded his mind. But, Kris, the befriender of Undyne, the fish warrior who tried to kill him solely for being human, was wise enough to not each fish or anything sea food related.

"T-that's a tough choice, but I'll take it." He said as he began to walk into the school. He waved at his mother and ran inside, and dashed straight towards where he knew his friend would be.

"Susie!" He called out to her in the tides of late students. Hair frizzed, some made wonky cartoonish noises, but every monster in the halls left in an instant. The purple dinosaur, trying to look cool by leaning against the wall next to the closet doors, jumped as Kris called her name and walked over to her.

"Oh, hey, you aren't dead. Neat." She said, trying her best to regain her 'cool' persona from before. She turned towards the creepy door they... ended up in yesterday.

"So, we're going back now?" She asked, trying to seem uncaring, though some shaky excitement slipped into her voice. Kris hated to crush her hopes and dreams, but dancing around an issue is just going to get you into trouble, _and _make you look like a fool while you're at it.

"No."

"Wha- WHY?!" She accidentally burst out, leaving her shout to echo throughout the empty halls.

"Because, Violet, I just skipped the entirety of class yesterday, and forced my father to take the blame. May he Rest In Peace. And we both need to make things seem natural and inconspicuous. Since sneaking off to a closet everyday would make everyone _extremely _suspicious and/or curious." He explained to her, as he tugged on her jacket sleeve. He would've made a comment on the whole _wearing the same clothes_ thing, but it always seemed like it was just a thing monsters did naturally. Or their clothes were a part of them. The thought made his spine crumple with discomfort.

"... So if we knock everyone out, they won't-"

"I'll stop you right there and tell you right now that you wouldn't get all of them." Kris cut Susie off before she could get any dangerous ideas. As he tugged at her sleeve, he noticed her balled up fist. He exhaled, and looked up at her.

"Listen, Susie. I want to see everyone again as much as you do. But, we need to think about what would happen if everyone found what we discovered. They could end up carted off, or killed. We need to keep our heads on, or they could lose theirs." Susie looked at him, her pupils angry slits surrounded in yellow. But, her expression softened. She looked down at his arm, and with her other hand pushed his off.

"Whatever, no need to lecture me. Let's get to class and work on this project." Kris' eyes widened and his soul rang out with a violent cursing as he walked with Susie back to class.

[XXXXX]

Kris ignored the strange looks his classmates gave him. They were all surprised when neither Susie nor he came back to class after getting the chalk. And when Noelle went to find the two of them and retrieve some more chalk, there wasn't even a trace of them.

And what made their strange looks turn into wide-eyed stares is the fact that he moved his desk next to Susie's. At her request.

"What?!" She snapped at the others. "Can't a girl have her project partner sit next to them?!" Everyone turned away to do their projects, which Kris and Susie didn't have a clue about.

Instead, while they waited for Alphys to come back after the heart attack she had when Kris showed up with Susie in tow behind him, Susie asked the questions she had about the... _encounter_ last night.

"Are you Kris or NotKris?" She had asked under her breath.

"...What?"

"You heard me, nimrod. Are you Stabbington, or Ghosty?" She said, with her usual strange names. Kris shrugged.

"Well, I guess I'm more of a Zombie, since I ate the old Kris." He said with the smirk of a maniac. Susie looked at him, dumbfounded. He really wished he could say he was kidding.

"I'm just messing with you. I didn't literally eat them. I just absorbed them into my soul, and now we... _I'm_ just Kris." He explained, realizing how weird his life was. Susie groaned as she leaned back in her chair.

"So, you're basically a body-snatcher, huh?" Kris turned to her, and opened his mouth to refute the claim. But nothing came to mind, so he conceded. "Yeah... at least I'm not forcing him- _them_ to do anything crazy like Chara..." He propped his head up with his hand, and yawned.

"Anyway, we should really make sure to clean the air. What do you think I am?" His red eyes looked over to his purple companion, who was sitting with her feet on the desk. Susie scoffed.

"A wimp who steals bodies." She snickered at him, expecting some sort of annoyed reaction.

"Thanks for that Susie. I really appreciate your input." He said lazily, yawning once more. Susie, who had just been effectively ignored, turned to him, and exhaled slowly.

"You're a human from another dimension, who was forced into that body, which is effectively yours now. And, while you are a hero, you aren't exactly a saint, either. You ki..." Susie trailed off, and Kris had a flash of memory. His killing of Lancer's father. But, he was sent back. She shouldn't be able to remember...

Kris slammed his hand on the desk, making the classroom echo with the lurching from his target. Everyone turned back to the two of them, but mostly Susie.

"Sorry, that was me. Hand slipped." Everyone turned back after hearing Kris' explanation. He turned to his partner, who stared at him, dumbfounded.

"Susie, listen to me very carefully." He said in a harsh whisper. "Do you remember the fight with Lancer's dad?" Susie blinked at him, and scowled.

"Of course I remember that, I had to save-"

"_Before_ that, Susie." He cut Susie off. Susie stopped, and he could feel the mist from Gaste being slowly filter away.

"You... killed him? But... he's alive. And so's Ral..." She questioned him, her eyes widening.

"I... used to be able to rewrite time. But, I can't do that here. I attempted, but it isn't going to happen a second time... And I think I know why."

"Oh, well would you kindly explain, then?" She asked him sarcastically. _Well, y'see, the person who created this world doesn't want me to make the same mistakes again, so he's basically banned me from manipulating the Timeline._ That was what he wanted to say, at least. But, if he brought up creators and Timelines to her, she'd either be extremely skeptical and question him further, or accidentally make a cult praising their creator, Gaster. And Kris found both options equally annoying.

"Chara broke my dimension's timeline. Or, they could have broken time itself. Either way, as a being from that broken space, I no longer have a direct connection to time or space." It was an extravagant lie, but with his natural blank expression and Susie's lack of knowledge in this subject, he didn't have to worry about her catching on.

Susie proved him right, and shrugged the answer off. Perfect.

"Anyway, what are we doing for this project?" As Susie asked Kris that for the fifth time, Alphys finally walked back in. When they got her to explain the project to them, they wer a little surprised.

[XXXXX]

"Can't believe we have to _make something that involves both of our interests. _Sounds way too boring." Susie complained in the cafeteria. It was filled with bustling students as they sat in circular tables similar to the one Kris and Susie were sharing.

"Not really. We could make something interesting, as long as we have some interests that coincide with one another." Kris said right before he shoved some Butterscotch-Cinnamon Pie down his gullet.

"... Do you have a dictionary on you or something?" Susie asked him with a _look-at-this-nerd_ look. Kris then reached into the mist, pulled out a dictionary, and placed on the table in front of them. Susie's unimpressed stare made Kris begin to snicker.

"Sorry, sorry, it's just I love using magic, and that was a joke I've been waiting to use..." He had to cover his mouth to stop his laughter. Susie, in a display of newfound restraint, just rolled her eyes.

"Because of that terrible joke, I want some of that pie." Kris looked down at his B-C Pie. There was only a fourth left, so he accepted the trade off, and passed the pie to the dinosaur. Susie looked down at it, and picked it up with her hands, and shoved it's entirety into her mouth. Her eyes widened.

"Damn, your mom makes _really_ good pie."

"Yeah man, but you've only experience the first trip." Susie glanced at him weirdly, and as she was about to asked what he meant, she knew what he was talking about. The aftertaste of the smooth, sweet pie was a mouthwatering, slight spice with the tiniest hint of nutmeg to alleviate it.

"By the look of pure euphoria, I see you've discovered the true power of my Mom's cooking." Susie nodded, wanting to savor the taste for as long as she could.

As Kris felt the happiness of introducing a friend to something you enjoy, a certain reindeer came up to them. He turned to her, and saw she was a shaky mess, being around her... _idol_.

"H-hey, can I sit with you guys?" She asked, her words shaking as smuch as she was. Susie, enthralled by the taste of the pie, didn't answer, so Kris did.

"Sure, but the payment will be..." Noelle stopped shaking and shook her head at him teasingly. "You're really just a six year old in a teen's body, huh?"

"Yeah, but as a six year old, I don't care." He said with a sly smirk. Noelle, rolling her eyes, reached into her satchel of school and Kris supplies, and pulled out... air. When she brought the payment out, it was already gone. She looked over to Kris, and saw he was already halfway finished with the chocolate bar.

"Kris! At least wait for me to actually give it to you!" She grabbed his shoulders and shook him playfully.

"Never. Now, sit next to Susie or something already." He said, reluctantly stopping his devouring of chocolate. Noelle began to shake again, though significantly less. Kris' display of annoying her was to take the edge off. Though, it was mostly for chocolate, which he found he was thoroughly addicted to.

Noelle sat next to the reptile, who had finally finished savoring the pie, and turned over to the person sitting to her.

"Hey." Susie said, with her smooth, yet gravely voice. Noelle began to blush profusely, and Kris went back to eating chocolate as the lovebrid fumbled around, trying to make cohesive conversation. He wasn't getting enough chocolate to listen to that.

[XXXXX]

After several class periods in Alphys' class, coming up with ideas for their project, it was finally the end of the day. Though, the most tiring part was having to wingman for Noelle most of the day. But, nevertheless, Kris was filled with excitement at going back into the dark place they'd adventured through just yesterday.

He and Susie waited at the back of the school, near the two doors leading into the Darkworld. Kris finished texting his mother the details of his absence, and he shoved his phone back into his brown jean pocket.

"Welp, all ready to go for an extensive period of time." Kris told Susie, who was doing her best to cling onto her former mean girl aura.

"Yeah yeah, whatever, let's go." Susie said as she started back into the closet door. Kris put his hand on her shoulder to stop her. She glanced back at him. "What?"

"Susie, when we walked through that door, we ended up right outside of Ralsei's kingdom. We came out from the playroom over there." Kris nodded towards the room to his side. "We should probably go from there, since that'll take less time to get to Lancer and them. Besides, Ralsei probably waited at Card Castle."

Susie took a second to process this, then nodded. "Sure, whatever." The two of them walked over to the playroom, and opened the door. No Magic was present in the room. Kris could just... _feel _it. The two heroes walked inside and shut the door behind them.

"So... any idea how to get back?" Susie asked him. Kris shrugged in response, and began to form some ideas on how to get back. In the end, he remembered how his soul had sealed the Dark Fountain, and how he still had access to the magic from the Darkworld. He had two ideas, and decided to use the one he was sure wouldn't work first.

He focused on the world itself, and felt all of it slip away from his grasp. He felt the world's code around him. He could see the numbers and letters that designed his world. He didn't really care if he was part of some program. Everyone acted like people, so he treated them as such. He wasn't going to just toss them aside because they weren't what he thought they were.

But, glancing through the code didn't provide any secret back doors back. So, he averted his eyes and felt the world return to its original form.

"Alright, last one." Kris told Susie, who blinked at him.

"You didn't do anything though." Kris shrugged at Susie's words, and looked within his own soul. There, he found the same wisping darkness that filled the Darkworld. He went and grabbed Susie by the shoulder, and felt as if the world was folding in on itself as they fell back into the land of shadows.

But, this time, a yelp of excitement and joy could be heard from the two of them.

[**Hey! Thanks for reading this side story, as I get ready to plan out the twists and turns of the second chapter! Hope you all stick around for it! Hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you next update!**]


	18. Cages

Kris opened his eyes to see a familiar figure hurtling towards his laying body. He quickly rolled over far to the side, and felt as if the entire world was shaking as Susie crashed back into the Darkworld. The black dust that came flying out began to settle as Susie finally got up.

"Man, that's never going to not mess with my back..." She groaned like an elder as she stretched out her scaled back. Kris looked around the room. It was the same room in which he'd sealed the Dark Fountain. A small spark of worry ignited in his chest at the thought of him having to seal another fountain if he wanted to get back. But, he extinguished it as he reminded himself that he could do what he did to get back to leave again.

"That makes one of us." Kris responded, already upright and stretching out his body. His armor seemed a bit more... resilient since yesterday. He didn't know exactly how he noticed. Maybe he spent too much time glancing at the code. On a whim, he drew his blade from the mist, and looked back once more at his sword. Same white edge, same skull and bat-winged hilt, same leather hilt. But it felt more... foreign in his hands. He remembered how it felt to swing his magic sword. It felt like the red blade was a part of him, and it was. He summed up his feelings to personal preference, and tried a few experimental swings to get used to the sword once more.

The slashes he made in the air seemed to help him steady his focus. He always wanted a sword, even when he was... younger. And now he had one, and was adept at using it. He really wanted to make some childish noise that seemed to bubble up from within, but he held back.

"Y'know, you acting like the fall was nothing is pretty weird." Susie commented.

"Well, I guess I've never been prone to... gravity related injuries." Kris shrugged and sent his sword back into the mist. "Anyways, we should probably go over to everyone else. They're probably waiting with that _cake_." Susie stood up a little straighter at the mention of baked goods. She marched down the hall, heading back to the place they'd fought Lancer's father. Kris followed her, matching her pace with more contained excitement. The first thing he wanted to do when he saw Ralsei was tease him about how much he'd miss them. A small grin began to form on his face as Kris exited the hallway and found...

A group of Rudinn Rangers, with bullets pointed right at the two Lightners. He gave Susie a side eye, and she shrugged at him, showing she hadn't done anything to warrant police brutality.

"Kris the Human! Susie the Monster! You are under arrest for the assault of the residents of the Darkworld, and the assisting in Prince Ralsei's treason!" The leader of the R.R. Squad bellowed at them from across the bridge.

"Let's kill them like we did with that fake prince!" A Rudinn Ranger whooped cheerfully.

Kris' body went slack for a second as he processed what had just been spoken. When he was sure he'd heard it correctly, his expression went completely blank, and he reached his hand out towards the side. As soon as he felt the leather grip return to his hands, he grit his teeth and struck.

He quickly closed the distance between him and his victims, and felt his wrist rattle under the powerful blows he sent into the Darkners' helms with his hilt. They tried to send bullets after him, but not one of them could get close to him before he knocked out the caster. In the end, he stood at the end of a trail of unconscious bodies, and he stood at the edge of the bridge, sword in one hand, and the whooping Rudinn Ranger in the other.

Their tail hung limp over the impossible abyss bellow. Kris' hand was firmly ensnaring the Darkner's neck, though he kept it loose enough for it to speak, which was what he commanded it to do.

**"****Explain what happened to Ralsei."** His voice was seeping with wild anger and violence, so much so that the Darkner recoiled from the voice alone.

"I... Uh he...umm..." The Rudinn stammered, and Kris tightened his grip fiercely. If the Darkner had bones, Kris would've heard and felt them crack under his iron grip. It flailed violently, forgetting the abyss below it. So, Kris simply let go and let it understand where it was.

The fear in the slots of it's helmet would pierce the hearts of most. Before he could fall too far, Kris hit him with the side of his sword, rolled him lengthwise onto said blade, and hurled him back onto the bridge. It breathed sporadically as it came to realize what'd just happened, only to dimly realize the same sword that had saved its life was now pointed at its neck.

"**Now explain, or you won't be thanking me for long.**" The human stated. As the Rudinn shook, it somehow found a way to speak clearly.

"_I-it was just a thing we were supposed to say to spook you... just a joke._" Utter silence filled the room as the words hung in Kris' ears. Then, he flipped his sword around, and jabbed the hilt sharply into the Darkner's stomach. The Rudinn barely had time to cry out before Kris crushed it's snout with his foot. The ground where the unconscious Darkner lay was riddled with cracks and damage. Kris knew his body, and he knew his soul had been feeding him excess strength. At that point, though, he didn't care what was happening to him.

** "Let's go."** The human waved at Susie, who was frozen in shock from Kris' violent display. She had known he wasn't the most... passive person, but wiping out everyone there for an empty threat? She shook her head, just telling her self that Kris was being weirdly overprotective, and followed Kris as he strode over towards the throne room.

"Hey, Kris." He turned silently back towards his partner as they walked. She pointed a claw towards the sword he held to his side. "Why's that glowing?"

Kris looked at the blade, which was glowing a deep red, much like the knives he'd summoned before. He lifted the blade in front of his face, and saw his blood red eyes shine deeply against the red blade. Then, a flash of an old face appeared in his mind, but was gone. Kris turned back to Susie and shrugged.

[XXXXX]

When the two Lightners entered the damaged throne room, Kris almost had a flash, but held onto the shadowy reality he'd returned to. For a split second, he didn't seem to realize what was different about the room. Then, he gazed past the giant throne, and saw a familiar spade sitting one a makeshift throne.

"Susie, your friend is there." He found the anger he'd had before had faded, or at least buried itself within him. And seeing such a _tough girl_ look so happy as she ran over to her younger friend made him smile, at least slightly. That smile only grew as he saw Lancer turn up and see his friend running over to him. He jumped out of his seat, with something wobbling on top of his head, and hopped into Susie's outstretched arms. That was when Kris knew something was off.

Since Lancer was the prince of the Eastern Castle, he shouldn't have been sitting in a poorly made chair opposite of his father's, even if he was on that throne. But, someone with a large amount of power must have given those guards the command to go after Susie and him. A slave to his curiousity, Kris walked over past the two giggling friends, as they spun around in the room with cheers and an uncool vibe.

There, sitting on the throne, was the one person Kris didn't expect.

"Aren't you... the King of Diamonds?" The three-armed, green diamond nodded towards him. He sat regally on the throne, with a diamond tipped scepter in one hand, another leaning against his face, and the last laid down upon the throne's armrests. He looked the human up and down, his eyes hanging on his sword.

"And you are... the one who committed treason against the previous king..." He said simply, and with a snap of one of his free hands, guards came and flooded the room. Susie and Lancer both looked shock at the sudden appearance of enemies. Kris grit his teeth under his closed mouth as he looked at the number of guards and the likelyhood of there being more. He wouldn't be able to incapacitate them all, while protecting Susie and Lancer, and interrogating the Diamond, all at once. So, he felt himself become trapped as he used his only card.

"I'm sorry, but Susie and I have done nothing of the sort." He said, letting his sword dissolve into mist. Kris met the King of Diamond's eyes, and then knelt down before him.

"We were suddenly sent to this world, and were told the way out was to seal this fountain. The fighting with this kingdom and its inhabitants only happened because you wouldn't let us go home. It had nothing to do with disliking the kingdom or anything of the sort." Kris did his best to abide by one of his only rules- Don't lie for no reason. So, he decided to be secretive instead, and leave out information. Like the fact that the whole campaign against the kingdom had taken on that exact sub-objective at a time.

The Diamond King was silent, and Kris didn't dare look up at him. Kris could already tell part of what had happened in their absence, but he needed to talk to someone who was there the entire time, who wouldn't want to screw his team over. Finally, after an age of silence, filled with the tension brought by the King's Guard, the Diamond King spoke.

"Well, I see this is more of that dastardly Prince Ralsei's foul deeds." The Diamond King said, making Kris realize what a good decision unarming himself turned out to be. "Well, no need to worry, human! I, the Great and Powerful King of Diamonds and all Gems, see it fit to take back to order I had on your head." Things began to make more sense, but Kris needed more context. But, his glances to the side told him all the Guardsmen were relieved to not have to fight him. They must have known how easily he'd wiped out all their fellow soldiers previously.

"Thank you very much for your kindness, my King." Kris made himself bow deeper, and he looked directly into the ground. If he had any pride, he'd probably be extremely pissed over this. But, apathy rules over all.

"Please, please, rise." Kris made sure not to look the King in the eyes, so he couldn't see how angry he was.

"Now, why don't you and your..., _playmates_ go and chat somewhere else. I have several things to do, so off you go." Kris glanced harshly towards Susie, right as she opened her mouth to say something that would get them all killed. Thankfully, she closed her mouth when he looked, and followed him out of the room, along with Lancer.

[XXXXX]

They ended up in Lancer's room, which was filled with holes, and had a bike in a bed. Kris didn't know how he felt about it, other than it fit Lancer. Kris glanced at the three people before him. Susie, who sat on the bed beside Lancer, and Roulx Kaard, who stood with across from the wall-leaning Kris. Roulx looked a bit worried, but anyone would when they were stuck in a small space with the man who put a blade to their throat.

"Alright, what the hell happened after we left, Roulx." Kris said flatly, doing his best to hold back the anger and annoyance he felt.

The purple and white Darkner sighed, and looked up at Kris. "Our Kingdom fell. That's 'what'."

"When you left us and returned to the Lightner world, the citizens still broke down the door, and there they saw 3 people. Lancer, as joyous and unconcerned as ever, the King asleep and muttering about pumpkins, and Ralsei, the gibberish mess who looked as if he'd went through a blizzard of attacks. He explained to the rest of us that you three had gotten into a fight with the King, and did their best to not hurt him. But, you settled for putting him to sleep when you couldn't give him mercy. But, the others had a hard time trusting him after your teams... aggressive impact that they left behind when they left. So, they threw him and the King into prison, though the King's reason for capture were more... concrete."

"What did he do?" Kris asked, unable to stop his curiousity from showing.

"After The Knight came, he dethroned and slaughtered almost all the other ruling families, save for a few in each, and gave all the ruling power to the King. He didn't respond... well to the new, almost absolute power he held. He abused it as well as his subjects. Though, he is also one of the strongest of these lands, so he couldn't be stopped. And, when they found him defeated, they took their chance."

"Alright, continue." Stories about power corrupting hit too close to home with Kris.

"Of course. Without a ruler, and a prisoner with seemingly corrupt allies, we had no idea what to do. So, we turned to the only figurehead we had available; the Diamond King. He fooled us all."

Kris glanced over to the two ex-bad guys sitting on the bed. They were paying extremely close attention, though Susie did her best to distract Lancer from all the _extreme_ bits of the story a kid shouldn't listen to. He nodded slightly at her. She caught the movement and nodded back.

"How did he do that to you?" Kris asked, a sense of dread mulling over him, like an overhead plane's engines.

"He filled our heads with soft and considerate words. How he would only take charge until Lancer became of age to take over the kingdom. How he would give a fair trial to both the King and Ralsei. How he'd do this as a favor to the King we'd all known, before power took him away." The Duke's eyes narrowed, and he looked the most angry Kris had ever seen him.

"The second he'd gone through the right of rule, he'd given back on all he'd said. He obtained full rule over all the land, and only teased the fact he'd do all the things he'd claimed. He'd be in charge until Lancer became of age, then he'd... _'banish'_ him for crimes he didn't commit." Kris read between the lines. He'd have Lancer executed.

"That's his answer for every promise he'd made..." Roulx muttered. Kris' eyes widened.

"Then... Ralsei..." Kris said airily.

"Will be executed by the sixth hour of the evening."

Kris fist was suddenly hurtling into the wall he leaned against, and black smoke flittered out of the cracks of the wall. His eyes flashed a bright red, and his fist began to bleed the same blood red. Kris looked over to the two on the bed, where Susie looked at him, surprised by the sudden movement. Lancer began to complain, but Susie covered his mouth and muffled complaints filled the room. Kris finally got control of himself, and removed his fist from the wall. He opened his palm and saw the blood begin to flow out of his wounds.

He barely need to focus for his determination to interact with the save file.

**Kris**

**Diamond Castle - Sooon-to-not-be-Lancer's-room**

His wounds healed instantly, and he glanced up at Roulx.

"Why haven't the citizens gone against him, and found someone else to rule?" He spat out.

"Because, there is no one else. Our kind our hell bent to stick to the tradition of royal descent gaining power. And also, the Diamond King's magic is manipulative, and no one could ever go against it."

"What type of magic to I have to cut through to save my friends?" Kris asked, no single emotion able to be made out in his voice.

"Illusion. He'll make it seem as if your closest friends and family had just talked you back into following him. No one can stand against it, as the illusion cannot be broken until it's goal is complete."

Kris looked down from Roulx collected gaze as he ran through plans in his mind. They could just catch him by surprise and knock him out, but there will be some people who had been freshly hypnotized into following him that would attack them, and they'd just ended up fight their friends until they ended up having to fight everyone. They could just take Ralsei and leave, but then the entire army would be after them like before, except they had a ruler who seemed to know Ralsei in particular. Kris couldn't find a simple solution to this problem, so he had to ask one thing.

"Where is his original kingdom?"

"...What?" Roulx asked him. "You couldn't be thinking of bribing him with his old kingdom, could you? When the King gained his power, he commanded all that remained of all the other king's subjects. There would be nothing there for him."

But Kris now had a plan, and he knew what he had to do now. "But there are freshly hypnotized people who would follow his rule forever. And once they break free again, they can just leave and return here. Eventually."

The entire room looked at him weirdly, but Kris could feel that this was his best and only option. "Ok, I have a plan. Susie, you and Lancer will need to go out and secure the old kingdom, alright? I will go find his devout followers, and convince them to follow him to his true kingdom. That way, we can get _literally anyone else_ to take over until Lancer can do it himself."

The two Darkners shared concerned glances, while Susie gave Kris a chill thumbs up.

"Kris... Jevil is free and out there." Kris whirled at Roulx, his murderous gaze making him shake in his boots.

"I... Uh... The door to his cage was opened, and he left it for some reason..." Kris forgot to close the door behind him. He wanted to elbow himself in the stomach, but he didn't have time. Kris began pace around the room and tap his finger on his thigh.

"Alright, so I'll go out and find his followers, then me and Susie can go and secure a route to the Kingdom, and take care of Jevil along the way, so the _King_ can take his followers and stay the hell away from Ralsei. Any other _game changing circumstances I need to know?!_" Kris suddenly snapped at Roulx, and he could feel his patience snapping under the information he'd just had shoved down his throat.

"Sorry, I just wasn't prepared for all this dog residue..." Kris apologized, rubbing his face. "Just two more things, and we can get started. One, why haven't you been doing your whole Shakespearean shtick?"

"_Oh, I'm sorry, maybe because I'm too stressed out to do a funny accent right now! Or maybe I can't handle long periods of talking while doing that!"_

"Fine, Sorry, just a question. One more thing, where the hell is Ralsei?"

[XXXXX]

While he and Susie moved downwards inside the elevator, Kris tried to repeat the thing he did back when he fought against the Spade King and reach for her soul mentally.

_Testing, one two?_ He sent into her mind. She seized up, but didn't say a word.

_What power don't you have, Blueberry?_

_The power to get you to stop calling me that. Listen, if this plan doesn't work, I have an extreme backup plan._

_I like the sound of that. How extreme?_

Kris sent her the exact details of this plan.

_That's pretty dark, Kris._

_You've literally seen me kill people before, what did you expect?_

"Whatever... Anyway, what are we doing?" Susie asked, crossing her arms behind her head.

"We're going to see Ralsei. Obviously." Kris said with a smirk, and was lightly shoved by his friend.

"Whatever, Blueberry. Let's go reassemble the Fun Gang." The elevator door opened, and they descended down the stairs to see a figure, huddled in green and sniveling inside of a familiar cage. When he looked up at the sounds of their footsteps, his face lit up so much, it was indescribable. Almost as indescribable as what the happy look he gave them turned into.

"Stop it. Don't torture me like this... just go and leave me to die..." Muttered the Dark Prince as he huddled back into his green cloak, and went back to crying.

Kris really wanted to use his backup plan all of a sudden.

[**Aye guys, guess who's back with some Chapter 2 stuff! Hint: It's me. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading, and please give feedback on this, because now I don't have a plot line from Toby to "_borrow_" from anymore. So, it's all original over here. But that's all for now, I hope you enjoyed my writing and I'll see y'all next time!]**


	19. Persuasion Is Key

"Ral, it's us." Susie said to the caged Prince. She took a couple of steps closer to the cage.

"That's what you've said _every tim__e _you tried to trick me!" Ralsei snapped back at her, his hat going lopsided as he turned towards what he thought was an illusion. The purple dinosaur stepped back a few paces, shocked at Ralsei's ferocity.

"I...I'm not a fool..." He muttered, pulling himself deeper into his cloak. "I won't be lied to again. I won't let myself be tricked by the fake friends you keep sending me." Ralsei said, looking down at the dark stone floor inside his prison. Susie was about to try reasoning with the shadowy goat again, but Kris stepped in front of her, cutting her off.

"Ralsei." He said simply, looking deep into the dark cage. Rasei didn't even respond to him. He stomped over to the cage, ensuring the pounding of his boots echoed of the walls of the mostly empty dungeon. He stood as close as he could to the cage, and with his face pushed against the cool metal bars he asked his friend a single question.

"How many times did that ass do this to you?" The words were a trigger to Kris' anger, but Ralsei's lack of faith prevented him from noticing. So, he answered as passivelly aggresive as he could.

"...He doesn't take his duties as king seriously, so at least once an hour." He still didn't meet Kris' gaze. But Kris' mind was too filled with anger and thought to notice. _At least once an hour... We've been gone for almost_ 24 _hours... So that bastard used our faces to torture our friend 24 times since we left at _**_minimum._**

Kris' eyes were freed from his overhung hair as he looked at Ralsei.

"I'm sorry."

"T-trying that one a-again?" He could hear the tears threatening to fall in Ralsei's voice. "S-sorry, but you should know that Kris doesn't just say things without anything to back them up." Kris felt a click go off in his mind, and realized how right Ralsei was. He wasn't going to be a person who could only spew words, because words were just air; completely weightless and extremely replacable. He reached a hand, and gripped one of the metal bars aligning the Dark Prince's cage. With all the strength he could muster, he tore the bar right out of the stone wall, leaving black dust to shower him.

"You're absolutely right." Kris told him, then removed another bar with both hands. Before he realized it, Susie was helping him as well. The two heroes helped their despairing friend out of his cage by breaking it apart with their bare hands. Ralsei sat, stunned, inside of his cage as if he feared they'd disappear the second he moved.

Through determination, they removed every bar frome the cage, and as they were surroundeed by the rapidly fading mist, Kris walked over to the still seated Prince and put a hand on the top of his head. With the other, he flicked him on the nose, and as Ralsei recoiled lightly, he took the hat off his head and onto his own.

"Now, do I seem like an illusion to you?" Kris asked him with a smirk, and he could see Ralsei's eyes widen and tear up. Before he knew it, he had been knocked back by a sudden hug into Susie, who looked down on the two of them cockily. Ralsei began to sob into Kris' shoulder, and he could feel his shoulder moisten with his tears. Suddenly in his element, he hugged him tightly to show he was there, and whispered reassuring things into his ear. Susie, out off her element ever since they stopped destroying property, just lightly held her two teammates in a loose hug.

They all stayed like that until Ralsei had calmed down and accepted they were there, and that they weren't upset that he hadn't known they were them. Susie did her best to reassure him in her usual way.

"Don't worry, it just shows that he's really creepy. I mean, he got our looks _exactly _right. That takes more than one look to get right." She said, constantly looking at Kris for assistance. He shrugged at her the entire time. He wasn't going to tell her how to console her friends, unless she got it _way_ wrong. And by Ralsei's small laugh, he'd say she was doing fine.

Eventually, they got embarrassed from hugging for so long. And by they, it was just Ralsei and Susie. Unseperating, Ralsei tried to pump himself up for a question.

"Ok, what's the plan Kris?" He asked, a determined look plastered onto his snow white fur. Kris tilted his head at him.

"What makes you think I have a plan?"

"Because you always have a plan. Doesn't mean they aren't dumb or they're good, but you always do." Susie chimed in, getting a sideways glance from Kris.

"Because you're a hero and our leader! You've always got a plan!" Ralsei complimented Kris absentmindedly, which made him sigh appreciatively. He was glad he didn't have to trek across another foreign land alone. He never knew how alone he'd felt in the Underground until he was forced to travel with his band of friends.

"Thanks, but are you sure you're up for this? You can tap out, because this is going to be significantly harder than saving the world." Kris said, which made Ralsei look at him funny.

"What could be harder than saving the world?" he asked, showing his naivety. Kris smirked at the confused look on his face, and put Ralsei's hat back on the goat's head.

"Changing it. For the better, at least." Kris told him, then explained his role in the plan.

[XXXXX]

Susie and Kris walked down the confusing and irregular hallways of the Eastern Castle, the crests of royal cards lining the walls. Along said walls were torches alit with green flames that danced into the shadows of the kingdom. The purple dinosaur had her arms cross behind her head as she walked and groaned complaints at Kris.

"Man, why do _we_ have to this bull-residue? Ral would be way better at this..." Kris scoffed. Only Susie would admit people would better at her in something when she didn't want to do it. Susie's reptilian yellow eyes flitted over to Kris.

"Because, Violet, our friend is a criminal on _death row_, and we need him to play mastermind for now. Now, this guy should be the last one, so let's get this going." Kris pointed at an on-guard Rudinn Ranger that stood far down the hall they were all in.

"Whatever you say, Blueberry." Susie rolled her eyes, and stuck out a fist to Kris. The human chuckled lightly, and bumped his fist against hers. Then, they began their combined Act.

The Rudinn Ranger stood in the hall, upright and completely focused. Susie advanced towards the Darkner first, putting a hand onto its shoulder.

"Hey." She said, her gruff yet smooth voice flowing out of her. The Darkner looked up at her unflinchingly.

"How do you feel about the new king?" Her yellow eyes tried to bury themselves into the Rudinn's mind, to see what she needed to know.

"He is my King, so I must follow his rule." At this point, Kris made his appearance. He walked over from behind Susie, like he had just been her shadow.

"Wow... you seem a lot more honorable than most Rudinns. They're usually all about the paycheck." He stated, walking to the Darkner's unoccupied side. The two Lightner's colored eyes glinted at the Darkner, showing a fierce curiousity from them both.

"We just have one question. Do you wish to serve the new king in particular?" Susie asked him, her sharp, dazzling white fangs revealed in a predatory smile. It made Kris flash back to when he was just a scaredy kid being bullied by her. But, he continued the Act.

"Or do you serve whoever sits on that chair?" Kris finished, and could feel the pressure as the answer to that question lingered in the air. The crackling of the torches filled the corridor as the Darkner opened its mouth to speak.

"I prefer the new king to the now-imprisoned one." Tension and air all escaped from Kris chest as he exhaled. He lifted a hand to scratch at his hair, and looked at their target.

"Well, have we got a deal for you." Kris said, an untrusting smile growing on his face.

The Lightners ended up escorting the Rudinn towards a door, overlooked by all residents of the castle. Except the crowd of the Diamond King's followers, which were mostly Rudinns, with an odd Jigsawry or two. They all began to talk to Kris and Susie, asking random questions that Susie silenced with a glare, showing her scaly face contorted with anger and frustration, that was just as terrifying as a bomb's ticking timer. The DK's subjects were quiet, and move out of the way as Kris tided through them and stood beside the door.

"Ok, listen up, loyal followers of DK." Kris held back every urge to insult the king and everything he stood for, and tried to use his words wisely. "What you're about to see may seem like high treason, but as followers of the king, I beseech you to listen, as I believe that the plan our leader has come up with will be beneficial to all people, which is a decision even the king wouldn't look over." He was glad he learned to pick up Ralsei's royal dialect, as it was extremely effective for convincing others to follow a plan. Case in point, he heard all the Darkner's mumbling agreement to his request. So, with a hidden smile, the human opened the door, and felt himself be hit with the wafting smell of aged paper and ancient ink.

He and Susie spearheaded the group into the library, and Kris found himself gazing into the towering shelves of books, and the blue flames that hovered above the candle wicks on every table and desk. With every breath, dust flew into his nose, but he was used to the feeling. Though the coughing in the room told him he was the only one.

"Alright guys, y'all better listen up and not do anything stupid. Or else I'll actually have something _fun _to do today." Susie growled at the 'guests', who nodded fearfully at the giant purple dinosaur.

"Ok, good to here. Now, you can come out now." Kris called out their 'leader', who could be heard shuffling through the bookshelves towards the sound of his voice. His covered eyes flew over the Darkners, not seeing any visible threat amongst the crowd. Their collective eyes widened as they saw Ralsei's bright green cloak flap in the wake of his shuffling before them.

"H...Hello everyone." He mumbled, and the last Rudinn Ranger Kris and Susie brought in slithered up.

"Oh, I **cannot **allow this to go on any farther!" It said, and a single diamond shaped bullet formed above him. "For the crimes of going against our new King's ruling of the imprisonment of that traitor and allying yourself with him, I will cut you down-!" At that point Susie punched him in the back of the head, sending him facefirst into the wooden flooring of the library. A stunned silence filled the room as Susie's sharp grin returned to her face.

"**Now, is there anymore fun to be had, or are you all going to sit and listen like good hostag****es?**" The silence that met her question proved to be a good enough answer for her, so she went back to leaning next to the door as Kris went and hoisted up the unconscious Darkner. He could still feel the vibrations of the strike echoing through it's body as he went to put it down somewhere. He gave Susie a casual nod as he placed the malgamation of magic and darkness onto a table. When he was finished, he nodded to Ralsei to go and explain the plan to the DK followers. They all mumbled various degrees of contentment with the plan, until a Jigsawry asked Ralsei a question.

"Why are you doing this for the one who's sentenced you to death?"

"Well, because the after-effects of my plan to fulfill the prophecy ended up leaving this kingdom in political disarray. I only wish to mend some of what I have inadvertently caused." He punctuated his explination with a bow, and the crowd fell victim to Ralsei's charm and politeness and was completely on board with the plan.

"Ok, so part of Ral's plan needs all of you to bid us some time while we secure the Diamond King's new kingdom. We plan to offer it in exchange for our leader's life at his execution, so I ask that all of you do your best to bide us time while we prepare this for his majesty." Kris explained quickly, and got all the citizens to agree to the plan.

Then, the reuntied Fun Gang was off an another, less cohesive adventure.

[XXXXX]

"Uh, Kris?" Ralsei asked, tugging on his sleeve. "Why are we at Seam's Shop?"

"And why the hell does it look so run down? More than usual, at least." Susie asked, and Kris didn't particularly have an answer for that one. The little shop in the middle of nowhere seemed to have gouges taken out of the outside, with splinters scattered all over the ground around it.

"Ral, watch your step, there's splinters on the ground here."

"You do know I'm wearing boots, right?" Kris coughed, and explained Ralsei's earlier question.

"We're here to buy some new gear. After all, we're going to a new area with no idea what's over there." He explained, and waved at his friends into the shop. A tattered purple cat stared at the group, and an unsettling smile was etched into his face as music wormed its way into Kris' soul.

"Ah, you've returned? That's a rare thing in these times. What could I get you three?" He asked, his single sunken eye staring at them.

"Yeah, do you have a spellbook for us please?" Kris asked as he looked around the shop, noting several things had been knocked off the shelves. Even the one doll that had been sitting behind him was gone. Seam turned around and went rummaging behind his counter for what he'd asked for. Kris looked behind him and saw his friends were talking as they looked at a ribbon that was on sale.

"So, what happened to your Seap, Seam?" Verbal pun aside, the shopkeep looked back at him.

"The Jevil." The air seemed to tense up like a frightened animal as everyone recognized the name. Ralsei began to shake beside Susie, who panicked a bit as she tried to calm him down.

"...Where did he go?" Kris asked through gritted teeth. Seam looked at him with his smile, and chuckled.

"Yes, of course children like you have heard of him. In fact, he described a 'blue slave' in particular during his rants about freedom and cages. Well, I wish I could be the one to send you on a quest to risk your lives, but the trail has gone cold. Wherever he's gone, even a Court Magician such as myself cannot find him." Kris didn't want to admit it, but a part of him, the one that craved combat and death, was sad that he couldn't find the Jevil.

"So, since I've become such a failure of a mage in my time, how about you all take this book for free, and seek death yourselves. Just don't do any other stupid things with this along the way, alright?" The lanterns in the small shop seemed to flicker with their yellow light, and Kris took the book. Then, the cat's soft hand latched onto the human's.

"And, if you ever see the Queen, never let her find this book. Or tell her. I will die either way." The magician removed his hand, and Kris picked up the spell book. It didn't seem that different from a regular book, but he took it anyway. As the three heroes left the shop, Susie turned back to the cat.

"Hey, try not to be so damn creepy next time, alright?" She said as the three walked off. Ralsei was still so fearful that he didn't even apologize to Seam as they walked away.

Trying to cheer Ralsei up, Kris wrapped his arm around the goat.

"Hey, don't worry. No matter how scared you are, we'll be there to help you. And that's exactly what this book is going to help us do." Ralsei's eyes looked up at the blue human.

"How is it going yo do that, Kris?"

"Yeah, get to explaining Blueberry."

"Well, we're gonna teach you magic Ral. So you can defend yourself, and we can work better as a team. Are you up for that?"

Ralsei nodded, and Susie gave him a surprise noggie. Then, Kris raised a hand in the air, and Ralsei excitedly met the gesture with a high five.

"Now, let's save the day!" Ralsei cheered, and the Fun Gang laughed in agreement.

[**Christ this took forever. Sorry, internet has been absolutely terrible. I'll do the best with what I got. Hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you next update!**]


	20. Discovery

"Do you even know where we're going, Blueberry?" Susie said snidely as the Fun Gang walked towards the hidden part of the Darkworld. Kris shrugged and kept walking, with Ralsei being herded like a sheep between the two Lightners. His mind was completely ensnared by the sprawling ink within the pages. It was a good thing they were walking through the Great Board, which had nothing for the Prince to trip over.

"I mean, I'm keeping an eye out for anything to lead us there, but we'll have to keep walking." His red eyes scanned the black and red checker board they walked across. He was glancing into the code, doing his best to keep a mental tether to reality. At least, enough so when any uninformed Ponmen popped up, he could ask Ral to sing his lullaby, and they could spare the sleeping Darkners.

"But this isn't as easy as it seems. I have no idea how this place looks, and I don't have any idea what makes it different from everywhere else. All we really know about this place is that it's supposed to lead off from the Great Board towards the north." Then, he stopped his endless march and turned towards Ralsei, who somehow knew to stop walking.

"Ral." Ralsei's eyes were bright against his shadowed face, and they flicked across the page. He was reminded almost immediately of a type writer. A scrolling gaze, then a swish of paper in the air, then it repeats.

He stepped closer towards the Dark Prince. He should've immediately noticed he was there, but he didn't.

"Ralsei." Kris said sternly. Then, Susie put her hand onto Ralsei's shoulder.

_"Hey, Spearmint! We got stuff to do!" _She bellowed from right behind him. He jumped at her loud voice, and the book fell out of his hands. He took a low-down step to catch the book, which Kris held right in front of his face. No one even saw him catch it.

"Now, are you all here now?" Kris asked, which made Ralsei's face seem to wilt as he looked at his feet.

"I'm so sorry, I should've been more-" Kris put a hand on his shoulder.

"It's fine to be a little overzealous. You just gotta know when to reign it in." Kris said, and could feel Ralsei's breath escape from his chest in relief. "Now, since we're having no luck on that part of the plan, let's start with some training." The human said, and with a snap of his fingers used a spell he'd become inseparable from; the Arena spell.

The normally shadowy space where Kris spent his fights from the Underground in now held neon streaks of green and purple. Even the blackness that used to eat away at the world as he prepared for combat was now tinted in a slight blue. He felt the cool air flow into his mouth and prick sharply at his throat. Then, strangely, he sighed as if he'd just returned home after an extremely long day, and turned to the two people he'd dragged into the space. Ralsei looked on in curious wonder at the new place, and Susie had a protective hand on his shoulder, eyes glancing all over like a shocked animal. But, when she saw Kris look over to her, she slowly removed it and regained her air of confidence.

"Ok, now what Blueberry? We just camp out here and waste time? Cuz that's a plan I'm completely down for."

"Yes, actually. But, you should know that in Arenas, time barely flows, if at all. So, we got at least half an hour in here before I call this 5 minute rest off and we get back to looking." Kris explained, walking to his friends. He put a finger to his chin and tapped as he sorted the information in his mind. Then, when he came up with his plan, he snapped his fingers.

"Alright, I'll explain what Ral will be doing first. You'll be getting a ***special attack* **today." He said, and Ralsei's ears seemed to flop a bit to the side. Susie started to chuckle, and raised her hand to the air like the student she is.

"Yes, Susie?" Kris asked her begrudgingly.

"Will this be on the test?" Kris sighed deeply as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Yes."

"Anyway," the human went on. "A special attack is like a personal ability people use in fights. Susie's is Rude Buster, for example. But Ralsei, you use passive spells, and therefore haven't actually made a special attack yet."

"Kris," Ralsei started, knitting his fingers together. "I don't mean to offend you, but I think we could solve our problems by just talking them out." Kris's head shook lightly towards his cloaked friend.

"Ralsei, don't you remember what we went over before we left. That we can't talk out our differences all the time, and we can't just attack everyone either. And with what happened with the DK, I can't feel even slightly less on edge until you have an _attack_ that you can defend yourself with. So, please, just trust me on this." Ralsei looked at him, opened his mouth to say something, but stopped and closed his mouth. Then, he nodded.

"Now that we have that discussed, I'll help you look through that spell book to find a spell after I answer Susie's other question." Kris the teacher said, then nodded at the dinosaur's raised hand.

"Excuse me, mister Dreemurr, but do you have a special attack as well?" Sarcasm oozed out of every word she said, but the human sighed anyways as he answered the valid question.

"Yes. Y'know how I attack all at once in an instant? That's my special attack."

"Huh. Seems legit." Susie said, and Kris nodded at her.

"Also, Susie, I'm going to have to help you with fighting as well." Susie revealed a sharp, gleaming white grin as he said this.

"Sparring with my favorite Blueberry? Must be my birthday."

"Wait, Kris." Ralsei interjected. "How are you going to help us both?" For an instant, both Kris and Susie grabbed at their shirts, right over where the heart is. At least, where Kris' heart is.

_Are you going to do **that** Kris? _Susie's thoughts seemed to come barreling into his mind, just like she would.

_No Susie. Not in front of him._ He dismissed the idea from both their minds. Then, he looked at Ralsei as blankly as possible. "We're going to start with finding you a spell, then set you up to train while me and Susie spar." Ralsei made an '_ahh_' gesture with his mouth, then nodded.

They spent a good 2 minutes in the Arena's time figuring out what spell Ralsei should use. But, Kris decided it with a glance as he saw Ralsei open to a particular page. On the top of the page, in a deep black ink, the words _The Star Blast _spell. Just the words star sent Kris flying into a memory. But, the second he saw _his _face, he was brought back. There, he pointed at the page before Susie could veto it for '_being boring_' or _'unoriginal_'.

"_Star Blast_? Any particular reason you want the _Darkner_ to learn a spell with a _light producing object _in it?" Susie asked Kris, who shrugged as he quickly looked over the spell.

"It'll be the easiest spell to make non-lethal for Ral." He could almost see the question marks flying around his partners' heads.

"Well, when we were fighting Lancer's dad, I sent some energy to both of you guys and your magic all got significantly more powerful. So, I think there should be a way to do the exact opposite and purposely make a spell weaker. There's a way, right Ral?" In all honesty, Kris was bull-residuing that explanation. The only magic he knew of before he came to the reality they all resides in currently were the bullets, with the exception of a few actual spells. Ralsei was their resident Mage, so he had to confirm Kris's ideas before he'd put them to action. He shrugged.

"I honestly have no idea how any of what Kris said works. I mean, I definitely believe him, but I can't explain or process the _how_. So, I'll just have faith in Kris and let him do his thing." Ralsei said, and Kris walked in front of the Darkner, and stood firm.

"Hit me with the spell." The two others blinked at him, and Ralsei's fur began to stick out in surprise.

"W-what?! Kris, I'm not going to hit you with a spell that's supposed to be an explosion! I really don't want to hurt y-"

"You need to do this, Ralsei. Besides, trust what I say, alright? I promise I won't be inhealable after being hit by the attack, alright?" Kris hated to use Ralsei's attachment to him as a way to force him to obey his orders. But, there would be no other way to force him to attack.

Ralsei looked at Kris, dumbfounded, and began to ball his hands into fists by his side. Kris wanted to give him a hug to make him feel better, but he definitely couldn't spoil him at the moment. The Darkner needed to decide for himself. Which was a terrible thing to say after he'd just pushed him towards the decision Ralsei didn't want. But, a conclusion was made as Ralsei raised his hands towards Kris, and began to mutter. An iridescent light surrounded him, which seemed to flow through the color spectrum. A single star-shaped bullet appeared in front of Ralsei's hands. Then, his hands shaking, Ralsei pushed the attack towards Kris. It came shockingly fast for a first-use of a spell. Kris could only see it right before it made contact.

His body and instincts were all screaming at him to dodge, avoid, or cut through the spell. It was as if the fear of the unknown had tried to take it's stone cold grip on his body and force it to act. So, being the rebel he was, Kris did the exact opposite and stood completely still. The spell hit him, and it seemed as if all his senses were drowned out in a white void. He tried to blink the whiteness away, but it even appeared under his eyelids. He raised a hand to his ear and snapped his fingers. Nothing. He then tried to pat the side of his face, and felt a limp hand slide off his face. He brought his other hand to the inside of his mouth, and bit on it. No pain came, but he definitely could still taste the blood. Then, the world of shadow came flooding back into his mind, and he could see Ralsei and Susie looking at him with extreme concern. Then their cries plunged their way into his skull, and he felt his skull reverbing his name over and over. Then came feeling, and he felt his back lying against a flat surface. The spell knocked him over? Pretty strong spell.

But now, them calling his name was getting annoying, so he put a hand on both of their faces and said, "I can hear you now." Only, by they way they jumped back, he said it much louder than intended. He focused his hearing, and could hear a slight ringing. Hearing damage, just great.

"Could you guys try healing me again?" He said as quietly as he could, but they nodded like he'd just yelled an order. Ralsei clasped his hands together, and began muttering Healing Prayer. The same fading yellow light surrounded him, completely unlike the Star Blast spell. When the like faded, the ringing was completely gone.

"... That took two Healing Prayers to heal..." Ralsei said through gritted teeth and an abnormal amount of intensity. Kris sat upright, and Ralsei through his arms around him like usual. But, then he pulled away, and looked him in the eyes with a burning anger.

"Kris! Why in the world would you make me do this to you?!" He shouted, stunning the two Lighners for a spell.

"Because we needed to be sure what the spell would do without any determination-"

"So we had to test it out on you?!" The Dark Prince yelled again.

"... Alright, I see your point, but I'm definitely sure you wouldn't have wanted to test it out on anyone."

"...Least of all, either of you." The goat sighed, and went to hug Kris again. "... Never make me do anything like that again, Kris. I beg you." He whispered, and he could feel the Darkner's shaking body against his.

"... I promise." He said, then hoisted the too of them up easily. "Well, Susie, you still wanna spar?" The question seemed to throw the others off guard.

"N-nah, we'll spar next break. Just... take it easy for now, okay?" Susie said very... mildly, which was completely unlike her. But, she did just see her friend get hit with what was essentially a flashbang and get back up completely fine. She was definitely out of the loop.

"Alright, may as well call this break off early. Oh, one last lesson. The Arena Spell is made by using one's desires to create a place where a person can fulfill said wants. To undo an Arena Spell, you just have to make peace with your desires and you'll be back exactly where you left." And with a snap of his fingers, Kris undid the spell.

And that's where everything went wrong. To prove this statement, Kris was suddenly in another space in his Surface clothes. And a familiar red spector stood before him, glaring at him intently.

"...Can't I go on an adventure without ghosts showing up out of nowhere?" He sighed.

[**Alright, I'm back! Sorry about how much exposition is stuffed in this chapter, but we've gotta get some more things for me to work with, y'here? Anyways, thank you for reading, and I'll see you next time!**]


	21. Desire

"So... how's it been, Old-Kris?" Asked the non-glowing copy of the spector who lit up the entirety of the dark abyss they stood in. The red version of Kris gave the fleshy version an annoyed look, but rolled his crimson eyes instead of showing their frustration.

"Alright I guess, except for the part where you're acting completely brain-dead in your search for that kingdom." They replied, and Kris could almost imagine the red steam flowing out of the spector's ears.

"What do you mean by that?" Kris asked, trying his best to be reasonable towards the kid who's body he'd effectively stolen. In responce to his consideration, Old-Kris firmly planted his hands onto Kris' shoulders and burned their gaze into his eyes.

"Kris, what is DK's power?"

"Illusion magic-" Kris, realizing his own stupidity, cursed like a sailor. Of course the kingdom would have a sort of illusion around it, that's a perfect defense against invaders. Like the Fun Gang and himself.

"Now you're getting it. I really don't want to watch you screw around in our- my body for the next... 3 hours? Probably. Anyway, now that you have at least a vague clue as to why you looking through the code isn't helping at all, get back out there and be useful again." And then the darkness began to fade and be replaced with a more accepting darkness.

[XXXXX]

Kris opened his eyes to see he was still upright, and that Susie and Ralsei hadn't notice his temporary disappearance. He put a gloved hand to his blue face, and silently groaned at his incompetence even more. His friends noticed his groaning and turned back towards the human.

"Kris? Is something wrong?" Ralsei asked him, ready to heal him with magic.

"Or are you just realizing your complete uncoolness." Susie asked, scoffing at her own joke, though a flash of concern was shown on her face. Kris shook his head, and groaned a bit more playfully.

"Right now, I'm groaning at how concerned you both are. It's too cute for me." A blush and an reddening face were ignored as Kris moved onto more important matters.

"But seriously, I'm annoyed at how stupid I've been acting, looking for this castle. The DK's power is literally forcing people to see or believe things. Of course his home would be protected by a spell like defense." He palmed his forehead as he looked into the shadowy boundary that surrounded the kingdom. Then, with his other hand, he snapped his fingers as a plan came into his mind. Susie gave him a sideways look, recognizing when he came up with stupid plans.

Kris put a hand over his chestplate, right above his heart. He breathed in slowly, and focused on his own self. He stood before what could be his greatest challenge. His breath wavered for a second, and his hands shook as he thought of what would happen if he failed. But, he felt a pair of concerned gazes on his back, and his own courage shined within him. In that same moment, he reached for that feeling of courage, and forced it to the surface.

_*Kris used Courage! The Fun Gang's defense has increased!_

The human raised his gloved hand towards his face, and he noted a slight red glow coming off of it. He reached again in his soul, though instead of calling for more power, he willed forth a more powerful presence. Now, as he opened his eyes, a red light was radiating off of him. A smirk appeared on his face.

"Kris, what the hell are you doing?" Susie asked stoicly.

"Whatever it is, I trust you." Ralsei nodded towards him. Kris turned and nodded back at the two of them. He had a vague sense he was doing something extremely foolish, but that always appeared when he thought to hard on something he planned to do. He turned back towards the boundary, and stuck a hand out into the all-encompassing darkness. At first, it seemed to wrap around his hand like a very touchy-feely snake. Then it suddenedly jerked away, like a kid who put their hand too close to the fire. Feeling confident, he suddenly plunged his whole body into the darkness that felt more like a liquid than what he'd thought it was previously. A muffled cry from his friends was heard as the darkness suddenly retracted from himself. It opened enough so the other two could see him. He waved, and they both sighed heavily.

"On second thought, I'll save my trust until after you tell me your plans," said an exasperated prince. His reptilian companion shook her head and sighed coyly.

"So you've finally realized how aboslutely brain dead his plans end up being?" Kris coughed to drag the conversation away from the two of them from complaining about him.

"C'mon guys, we have a death sentence to avoid, so let me test this out so we can all do this." He said, and walked forward with all the confidence he had outsmarted the illusions. The pep in his step lasted about 4 more steps. After that, his vision started to get cloudy, and then...

He stood before a familiar sweater wearing human. Their blush revealed exactly who they were. Inky black tears flowed down their face, as they reached out a clawed hand toward Kris. Unconsciously, he drew his sword from the mist. Unfortunately, light and darkness cannot coexist, so one of them had to go. And his desires trumped his necessities.

The darkness jumped at him as his light faded out. Instead of one solid thing, it lashed out with tendrils and claws. They didn't hurt or sting, but they did tire the human's body. Panic filled his body as he realized the trap. It we going to force him into unconsciousness, and trap him inside the darkness for all eternity. A life without light or consciousness. A false death, and an endless eternity alone with no friends to save him. He quickly harness the fear, and forced it to fuel his courage to escape that fate. His eyelids were getting heavy as a dim light surrounded him. It didn't keep all the claws away, but they did give him a way to plow through. The seconds he spent clawing back out felt like small eternities, built to strain his heart before he closed his eyes for the last time.

But with his own determination, he found a way out and hurled himself back onto the Great Board. He fell onto his side, and watched his own chest heave woth wracking breathes as he regained a semblance of self. He didn't realize he was being held by anyone until he was fully awake again. Susie had wrapped her arm around him, gripping onto his shoulder like a tether. Ralsei sat in front of him, the spell book fallen on the ground in front of him. His sense of time wobbled until he realized it'd been a good 5 minutes since he fell in that thing. He looked Ralsei in the eyes and found a sort of burning anger that told him he needed to look away immediately. He obliged.

He quickly wriggled his way out of their grip, and whatever anger they'd been saving for when he could receive his lashings died as they noticed his legs shake. He was seething, yet grateful.

"Alright, that did not work out. Ok, change of plans. Ralsei, do you have an illumination spell in that book?" The tense silence that followed was the best yes he could have gotten.

* * *

In the end, Kris' original plan was almost identical to the plan they all ended up using. Except that plan didn't involve Kris and Ralsei holding hands so he could send magic into him to power the Light spell. Or Susie walking in front of them like a stern parent chaperoning a couple. The other two still wouldn't speak with him, but with how Ralsei blushed after the prolonged contact, Kris guessed that their friendship was still salvagable.

But, he didn't think they should start making up in the middle of the sedating shadows that surrounded their small bubble of white light. So, with all the tact he could muster, he decided to make conversation.

"Ral, have you been seeing... weird things at all in here?" The prince's bright eyes swept towards the blue human.

"No, why? Did you see something when you walked through here?" Kris nodded, and put his free hand to his chin. He had an easier time thinking in the web of shadows they walked through, as no sound could be heard. Not a gust of wind, or an echoing step from the others. So, he found himself lost in thought as he tried to process what he'd seen in the shadows previously. But, he quickly lost track of his thoughts as Ralsei gripped his hand tighter, and he felt his fur... somehow.

Kris raised their interlocked hands, and looked at his own. His glove had disappeared, but he thought little of it as he looked to Ralsei.

"What is it?" His concern filtered through his voice.

"What did you see in here?" He asked again, making Kris realize he didn't answer the question earlier. Suddenly, he couldn't feel Ralsei's hand, and he started to sweat. He was nervous. He, the one who exterminated an entire species single handedly in a single night, was nervous at telling his friend what he saw in the dark. He remembered once more that he was still a child, and these things still rattled him.

"I saw... someone who'd betrayed me. I drew my sword from the mist, which cancelled out my other spell, for some reason."

Ralsei hummed at that, and nodded. "That makes sense, as you're the type to focus completely on something. Splitting your concentration isn't your specialty. N-not that there's anything wrong with that!" The black goat added hurriedly, trying to keep his politeness. Kris scoffed and almost went to wrap his arm around him, when he remembered the place they were in. So instead, he tightened his grip on Ralsei's hand.

"Who betrayed you? And why?" Both Kris and Susie the eavesdropper tensed at the question, and the human felt his pulse quicken. A quick mental discussion broke out between the two Lightners.

_Kris?_

**I don't want to tell him.** Every fiber of Kris' being snapped back at Susie with those words. He immediately sent a wave of apology to Susie.

_Alright alright, don't bite my hand off. We'll tell him when you're ready._ Kris thanked her, and tuned back into reality.

"I... don't want to talk about right now. Later." He said, reassuring himself that he'd explain it later. Ralsei nodded in agreement, and they continued walking in darkness. But, now that they had started talking, they filled the nothingness around them with meaningless conversation.

Suddenly, they stumbled into a stone room all at once. They all immediately got into formation, all back to back. Kris analyzed the area quickly, though there was not much to analyze. It was entirely structured in stone brick, with an abundance of black vines with purple flowers blooming on them. It was structured exactly like a box, with even the wall they had apparently walked straight through being filled. But, there were two extremely pressing matters in the room. There was a vague golden statue in the middle of the room of a rhombus with a simple face that seemed to look through them. And the face that there was not a single exit or indent inside the room. That made things pretty diffuclt, as he had lungs he needed to consistently fill to stay alive.

"Alright, everyone off." Susie grumbled as she lightly shoved the rest of the team off her back. "If I've learned anything from this adventure, it's that if no one attacks you the second you enter the room, you're safe for now." Kris didn't agree with the statement, but at least she was trying to learn. They all lowered their weapons, and Kris quickly got to stretching out his muscles. After that, he reached into his inventory, and pulled out his phone. Susie saw this, and took it as an opportunity for some banter.

"What, are you gonna report this as a kidnapping?"

"Well, I would, except my phone makes this creepy noise whenever I try to call anyone." Susie tilted her head in disbelief. Kris went and dialed his mother's number, hit call, and pointed it out into the room. The unholy noise that raised every hair on Kris' body drowned out of his phone, and the call denied.

"Yeah, that was kinda creepy. Nothing too bad though."

"Really? That stuffs pretty scary to me." Kris admitted, and Susie snorted to hide a laugh.

"Oh, I'm Kris, and I'm scared of weird music." She mocked him, and Kris shot right back.

"Oh, I'm Susie, and I eat school supplies." Susie rolled her eyes. "Hey, chalk has a good crunch, and I'm not weird for enjoying it."

"Oh, I am the both of you, and I have hair going over my eyes." Ralsei suddenly joined in, and the two Lightners looked back at him. And, at the same time, they opened their mouths and said, "Oh, I'm Ralsei, and I get easily embarrassed."

That sent the three of them into a fit of laughter. For a moment, they forgot their duties and responsibilities and just enjoyed each other's company. Then, the statue started to talk.

"Are you guys done, because I have more trials for you." The three of them turned to the statue, and coughed as the straightend themselves out for a discussion.

"Trials?"

"Yes, that's how you get into the Diamond Kingdom. Now, you passed the first trial, the Trial Of The World. Now, for the Trial Of The Group." The statue said, without moving in any way, shape, or form. But, the trial apparently started when the purple flowers sent out violet spores that filled the room.

"That was pretty... strange." Ralsei said, his cloak-blouse swishing in the air as he waved the spores away from him.

"Yeah, especially since flowers don't have colored spores... I think. Hey Susie do flowers have-" Kris turned to his friend, narrowly dodged the swing of her axe by crouching down. She then threw an elbow at him, forcing him to turn around and catch her arm while sending a kick straight to the side. He immediately let go and created distance between them.

"God dammit, I guess we're doing this then." Kris complained as he drew his sword from the mist.

[**I really have nothing to say with how long it's been since I updated. Uhhh... Sorry I missed my chance to make a Halloween/one year anniversary special for Deltarune. Well, I could go along with it now, and be super late. Might make it a side story. Anyways, I'm really sorry I haven't updated, and I'll try to get back on my once every two week schedule. Anyways, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see ya next time.**]


	22. Friends, Foes, and Flowers

"Ok, Susie, don't split me in half please," Kris asked her, and her rebellious streak was revealed along with the stroke of her axe bearing down on him. He reached out, and with his still shadowed blade, stopped the attack's arc with a clash of metal. Susie glared at him with pale yellow eyes, then sent a brutal kick to Kris' side. Gathering his courage, he dulled the blow's d, but the impact sent him hurtling towards the ground.

"Kris! Susie!" Ralsei exclaimed as he ran towards his two friends, his mind flipping through the minuscule amount of spells he knew, trying to find a way to stop the fighting. "Stop it right now!" His words rang hollow to the mistified monster, and Kris' current position wouldn't allow him to resolve it peacefully. Then, like the scratch of a record, Kris had an idea. Gasping for air, he called out to his still-sane friend.

"Ralsei! Hit Susie with Star Blast!" Kris' pride hurt a bit at having to have a friend fight for him, but his logical side didn't want to die and leave his friend with his broken body in front of her as she came out of her trance. But, it seems that Susie's trance was more lucid than he'd first assumed.

"Ral, don't listen to that _thing_," Susie spat out. Kris' eye twitched as he forced himself upright. "It took his body, just like that other time! Get him!" Kris was about to use her desperate ploy to get Ralsei to help her as a distraction. He was charging her front and then turned his head to see Ralsei send a little star hurtling into his side. He was sent sprawling back onto the ground, but the burning pain in his side was a great motivator to get up quickly. A glance told him that the spell wasn't as watered down as the last time Ralsei used it. He was hypnotized as well, and by the strength of the strike was very into the idea of beating him into submission. He looked into both of his friends' eyes and saw a strange dullness in both.

"Ralsei, what are you doing?!" He shouted as Susie closed their distance, and tried to make sure nothing was in between Kris and the axe. But, between the sparks that flew off because of the clash of iron, Kris could tell that Ralsei wasn't hypnotized at the moment. But, another call to arms from Susie ended with Ralsei's eyes dulling in color as another Star Bast was being charged. Kris saw through the power struggle and decided to cut out the middle man. Fending of brutal slashes and low kicks, Kris suddenly unleashed a burst of speed and aimed a knee into Susie's side. The attack, while spiteful, was strategically sound and made Susie attempt to grab herself in pain. In that second, Kris did three things. He summoned his courage and covered Ralsei with it completely. He struck Ralsei with a powerful blow to the stomach and sent him flying into the wall with enough force to embed him in said wall. And he reeled at the consequences of his plan as he turned back to Susie in time to see her Rude Buster split the air in front of him as it came towards him violently. As time slowed, he cursed heavily under his breath as he attempted another burst of speed. He could only diver his metal boot into the path at most as he felt his foot jerk back, throwing off his balance. He immediately knew the cause of this. He was running out of oxygen, and quickly. The room may be big, but the amount of air it takes to do his typically superhuman feats topples the amount he could consistently get in their confinement. He turned to the statue, which had gone silent, and back to Susie the Violet Berserker, who screamed in rage as she closed their distance and hit him with a faster-than-usual flurry of chops and slashes. Now, what he'd previously thought of as an inconvenient forced-pacifist fight against a manipulated friend had turned into a brutal fight against time and his morals as he had to decide if he had the power to knock her out in one blow. Because if not, she'd just go even more berserk and become even tougher to fight, as monsters didn't need oxygen or the like to survive. It's a thing they'd like to have though.

In this fight, Kris could feel himself becoming more and more apathetic towards just striking her down, though probably not killing her. Now, it was a battle of his willpower and integrity. At that word, he felt his soul convulse. He didn't think a soul that was Determined like his would hold up in an integrity battle. But, those thoughts of soul traits and impossible battles made him remember the toy he'd found in the Ruins. It was unmarked and worn down, but it gave him the strength to stand strong against temptation and back up what he said. Before he'd even noticed, a red dagger was in his left hand, and his body immediately readjusted to the assault. The knife was the weapon he'd practiced with and used the most; even if it was dulled, it gave him the strength to keep going.

His first surprise was what he'd immediately done with the blade. Susie charged a Rude Buster in the middle of her assault, then kicked up some stone shards off the ground to force Kris back a bit. Then, as the axe descended and glowed blue with magic, Kris' instincts took over and he slashed with the blade against the axe's arc. His determination overpowered Susie's magic, and he found he made a nice slash against the axe's edge. He was growing more confident, yet less strong. Eventually, the durability of the monsters overpowered humanity's weakness, and a blow Kris could just barely block sent him skull first into the stone. He didn't even realize he'd been bleeding until then, but now the crimson liquid flowed from his wounds freely.

His breath labored, he turned onto his back to see a snarl on his friend's face as she looked down on him. He now gasped every few seconds, and he knew that this would be the place he died. He couldn't even waste oxygen on telling Susie to stop. So, he called out to her soul.

_Hey._

She stopped snarling and looked up as if his voice were just some echo from the stone roof that seemed to grow and shrink before Kris' eyes.

_It's Kris._

"Are you trying to lie to me right now? Kris wouldn't lose to me in a fight," She said out loud. "Kris wouldn't attack Ralsei. Kris would try to reason with me without a magic weapon in his hands."

_That seems like an unrealistic expectation, as you attacked me first._ Kris thought, but he understood the truth in her words. He'd never do that, and him doing it wasn't going to help his case.

"Kris would just use his special attack to show it was him. He doesn't care about what makes sense. He just does whatever works."

_Ok, now that sounds like me. I wish I'd done that before I ran outta air._

"What?"

_Humans need oxygen to stay alive. This closed room doesn't have that, so I'm probably going to go brain-dead soon. Can you do me a favor and make it quick?_

"Wha- why the hell would I do that?!" She exclaimed.

_Because, when the illusion wears off, I don't want you to be sad when you realize you killed me._

"... Okay, that sounds like something Kris would say."

_Really? Why?_

"Because only he'd say something so moronic and kind. Also, you always take on everything yourself, you workaholic."

_I don't appreciate being insulted to my dying breath._

"Oh, right. How to I... pass this trial or whatever again?"

_Oh god, that damn statue never told us that!_

"Oh god damn it," Susie said, then smirked. "Well, I guess I got that sparring session you promised me, Blueberry."

_Susie I'm going to die. But, you're welcome, Violet. _Kris thought as his vision began to wobble. He'd survived falling down mountains, being shot with bullets, fire magic, tears, bones, spears, lasers, bones _and_ lasers, magic rainbow lasers and swords, and he technically survived a reality-warping attack. And here he was, dying from lack of oxygen. At that moment, he realized how fragile humanity truly was. And now that he was thinking about his past feats, he was starting to think about how much he'd failed in this adventure. He's gotten himself almost killed thrice, and it's only been an hour or two. His powers, though extremely useful, weren't as all-powerful as he thought they were. Guess there was a reason he never looked through the code in the Underground. Now, Kris lay on the stone floor, looking over to his allies once more, and closed his eyes as his body went limp.

* * *

With an elbow suddenly thrust in his stomach, Kris launched himself upright and gasped. Then, when the sweet taste of air hit his tongue, he started breathing in as much as he could, as hard as he could, as fast as he could. In and out. in and out. In and out. He was willing to fill his lungs with enough oxygen to make them burst at the seams. But, he really couldn't do that with all the exhaling he needed to do as well. Instead, he breathed until he could realize his body was in shock, and he had probably sustained brain damage from the experience. So, he reached for his File and SAVED.

His body and mind restored, he could finally notice the rest of the Fun Gang standing in front of him. They both had a similar look of concern, though that may have changed, as Ralsei gave him a very strong hug. Kris still focused on his breathing, as he felt a bit nervous doing anything else, so he just gave Ralsei a reassuring pat on the back. Receiving a message Kris didn't know he sent, Ralsei let him go and Kris could breathe even better than before. He stretched himself out on the ground and looked up at the dark sky. It was impossible to tell the time, at least for a Lightner like him. Despite that, he felt the unavoidable weight of wasted time on his conscience. If he had to guess, they'd have an hour to explore this place before they had to race back to the castle before the _King_ finds his favorite prisoner has escaped. Kris breathed harshly through his teeth and got himself upright to fulfill his role as a leader.

"Alright, guys," he said, looking at his friends from under his long bangs. "Welcome to the... Ral what's the name of this place?" He asked, and took a glance at the broken stone structures that covered most roads, and the same violet flowers from the room that sprouted everywhere in the kingdom. The place had been painted in bright blues that had dulled and flaked off over time. Kris had thought the takeover of Lancer's kingdom had been recent, but the things he saw were telling him otherwise.

"This used to be the Kingdom of Diamonds; Holders of Unbreakable Truth." The dark goat answered.

"Is... that the name?" Susie asked, with a light chuckle.

"There has never been a mention of the kingdom that didn't include the entire title, so yes." Ralsei shrugged, not having a better explanation.

"Well, welcome to the Fallen Kingdom of Diamonds, for all your monarchy-bribing needs." He said dryly. "We have an hour to tour this place and look for anything dangerous and/or useful here."

"... I don't want to ask, but why?" The dinosaur said reluctantly.

"Well, I don't want to give this guy anything that'd help him. And if there's something dangerous here, who's gonna be here to take care of it? The Ruddins?" He asked, and the others all shook their heads, knowing exactly how useful the Ruddin soldiers were. "No matter how dumb or asinine the King is, I don't want their deaths on my conscience. So, we're having a little field trip in the meantime." Susie immediately raised her scaly arm into the air, and Kris regretted calling their mission a field trip.

"Will there be a lunch break?"

"We can probably pick more dark candies from the trees in the park," Ralsei added.

"There ya go. Now, let's finally get this done. I feel like we've been waiting to get here for months..." And the gang was off to make sure they could leave that god-forsaken place. All over, they found rubble and ruins, but nothing too dangerous. A broken building here, some shards of glass there, but nothing anyone with a brain wouldn't be able to avoid.

In the end, the road to getting to the Diamond Kingdom was more interesting than the Kingdom itself. Or so it seemed.

* * *

After they had finished exploring the kingdom that lacked anything noteworthy, Kris found himself sitting on a bench surrounded with violet flowers, as Susie lifted Ralsei into the trees in the hopes of finding fruits or candies. Kris' flowery nightmare may have made him a bit uneased by wildflowers. Though, he couldn't stop rubbing his throat while he was around them for some reason. It may have just been another nervous tick. As he shoved his thoughts of flowers out of his mind, he felt his nose tickle and found the flowers were giving off dark, dust-like pollen. Kris ended up inhaling it because he was fairly fond of breathing after the day he'd been having. Then, he was in a familiar-looking cage, the bench still underneath him. A figure stood before him, a scythe in his grasp.

Faster than expected, Kris had taken a swipe at the Jevil's neck, which was blocked by the scythe's spine, and the Darkner's jovial, spontaneous voice sprung from his throat.

"Whoa ho, settle down Lightner! Let's have a little chat before you try and win this game!" A second scythe appeared and hurled itself at Kris. He dodged and created distance in a moment's notice.

"Fine then fool, what do you want so bad you're risking your neck for it?" Kris' overwhelming irritation and frustration were springing loose, now that he had an outlet. His grip on his sword's hilt was tight, a painful attachment to reality.

"How are you having so much fun?!" Random bullets began to swirl around the room he was trapped in, so the human danced between them as he watched the Jevil with an indifferent stare.

"The mage is less uptight, but that still isn't right! The kingdom's throne is hollow, yet there isn't enough sorrow. So, how can you be having a good time, while committing crimes? You should have to be as bored as me, or else I won't feel free!" Kris interpreted his words as Jevil not liking the semi-peaceful state the Darkworld is in at the moment, and why they were having the most 'interesting' time out of everyone else.

"Why would I tell you?" Kris closed the gap between them and had his brutal slash taken by one of Jevil's scythes. The breaking of the weapon satisfied Kris, for some strange reason. Maybe because he knew it was a clone of his opponent, and it was essentially an alternative to murder. Kris stopped thinking about that for the moment and went to kick the Darkner in the side.

But, with a knowing smile and thanks, the cage faded away with Jevil, and Kris found himself kicking a tree instead. Dark candies fell out, and the other two scrambled to catch some before the fell. Kris stared at the tree, and the slash mark that matched the swing he'd done perfectly. Kris knew exactly what it was. An illusion. But Jevil was nowhere nearby; he could feel it in his soul. He was almost never unaware of an attacker. So, he looked towards the last place he'd been sitting; the bench, surrounded by the flowers. And their pollen. Their shadowy, dust-like pollen. The pollen that looked more and more familiar as he looked at it. Then he remembered something about the castle he'd noticed and written off when he and Susie had first arrived.

He cut one of the flowers and picked it up in his hands. He could almost see a face in it. A sneering face, mocking him and berating him. He cast the flower aside and turned to the other two.

"We need to get back. I figured out how DK's illusion make is structured. I'll explain on the way, but we need to go."

"Can we eat first?" Susie asked, not teasingly but more embarrassed.

"We can eat on the way. But we're getting the hell out of here."

**[Oh sweet Jesus, finally finished this one chapter. I'm so sorry I've been so inactive, but I just haven't been feeling this lately. Not this story, but just this one god damn chapter. I wanted to do something so much cooler for it, but my apathy towards this just made me unable to bring myself to care for this. I have to say this chapter has been the least fun thing to write in this story and it shows. Well, the not-dead guy is hopefully going to continue not being dead, no promises. Thank you for reading, and see you next time.]**


	23. Party Crashers

"You can't enter the party."

"...Why not?" Kris asked the Rudinn Ranger standing in front of him. The purple snake's eyes flitted behind its helmet's visor, and Kris followed the look. It led him towards his suit of worn-down armor, and Susie carrying a suspiciously Ralsei-shaped bag over her shoulder, who was doing a particularly bad job at not squirming.

"Because you look like a band of escaped criminals trying to hide your stowaway from being executed by a particularly annoying ruler who I had taken part in a meeting to 'take care of'." It explained.

"... So we need to-"

"To get changed, yes." The high-level Darkner finished. Kris liked the guy. Didn't beat around the bush too much.

"So can we get changed inside of the castle, or am I supposed to go find one of the nonexistent buildings you have for changing." The human said bluntly, and he could've sworn the R. Ranger rolled its eyes at him as he opened the door into the castle.

"You can change in one of the rooms on the third floor. Try not to screw up this plan, guys. I only get paid in grapes. That he immediately taxes and makes me feed to him."

Kris and Susie said something half-heartedly about fixing that and left the Darkner immediately. They seemed like the type to complain about their boss for all eternity when they had only... less than an hour. They walked around all the floors and up all the elevators towards the room they could change in.

"This place has a tedious design," Kris commented on the elevator.

Susie nodded and Ralsei mumbled in agreement in the bag that made the monster remember that her teammate was inside it.

"Shouldn't we, err, let Ralsei out of the bag," Susie asked, and Kris shrugged.

"Eh, we're probably fine, but it couldn't hurt until we get our disguises."

"What, are we going to get into a phone booth and transform into the _Super Fun Squad?_" Susie snickered.

"Heros for fun and free food." Kris chuckled.

Ralsei mumbled something that was probably funny, so the non-bagged heroes just laughed as they went into the changing room. Ralsei gave the rest an annoyed look.

"Why did you have to put me in a bag of all things?" The Lightners looked at each other, then back to the Darkner, and shrugged. The Dark Prince sighed and shook his head, astounded by their nonchalant-ness.

"Anyway, Kris, what's the plan going to be?" He looked at the human with a questioning gaze and Kris nodded. The air in their closed-off room turned cold as they fully took on the weight of the situation and its severity.

"We're going into the party, and act as casual as possible, trying not to drag too much attention to ourselves altogether."

"That sounds pretty basic to me." Susie's coarse voice added, with a polite nod from Ralsei.

"We'll be doing so until Ralsei's execution is announced. Then, all of us will reveal ourselves and our plan to the DK. I will handle the explanation, as Ralsei has little sway over him, and Susie has made herself known as the type to attack nameless foot-soldiers." A glance from under Kris' fringe made Susie rub the back of her head.

"Sorry." Kris sighed and walked over to put a hand on her shoulder. "As long as you recognize that was a mistake and do better, it's fine." Kris held back from adding that he couldn't judge without being hypocritical.

"After that, the rest is on the DK." Kris nodded, and the rest of the Fun Gang gave him an expectant look that soured when they realized he was finished.

"That's all? _That's_ your genius plan?" Susie asked incredulously.

"Reveal the plan we've spent hours on and hope he does what we want?" Ralsei added, uncharacteristically judgemental. "I'm sorry Kris, but you have to admit that's an extremely risky plan."

"That's why I have a plan B." Again, they expected him to go on when he had nothing else to say.

"I can't believe you're our leader." Susie sighed, facepalming. Ralsei mimicked her motion, and Kris laughed it off.

"Hey, this is a really simple situation with really simple solutions. He either agrees to the deal, or we move to plan B." Silence followed his words.

"I can't believe we're trusting Ral's life to this shi- crappy plan." She corrected herself as Ralsei looked at her. He sighed as well.

"Yeah, I honestly can't believe it either. But, we don't have any other plans, so we have to make do with what we have." Ralsei explained, and Susie smirked reluctantly.

"That's always how it is with Kris' plans." The three of them all chuckled at that, and Kris moved topics before they started complaining about his other plans.

"Anyway, Ral, we need a spell that can give us some outfits and you a disguise. Can you find one in your spellbook?" Ralsei nodded, opened out his hands so darkness could fill the space as he pulled the book out from his inventory. Flipped through the pages, he found a spell that did exactly as what they needed. Susie was outvoted and nominated as the first test subject, and Kris wanted to be the one to cast the spell. He'd been hammered by magic since school ended, and he wanted to show he wasn't completely moronic when it came to spells.

"Didn't you say humans can't use magic?!" Susie complained.

"Never hurt to try," Kris replied with a conniving smirk. As he cast the spell, Shadow Dress, the shadows from the corners of the room slithered out and wrapped themselves around Susie, molding into the form Kris desired them to be. He wished all spells were this cut and dry. Put what you want in here, and presto! You got a Susie in a yellow dress that matched her eyes. Though, Susie didn't like the dress.

"C'mon man! Couldn't you at least give me a jacket or something cool to wear over this?" She complained. Kris shook his head and sighed.

"This is DK's party, and he's just high enough off his fumes that he'd take extreme offense to anyone who didn't wear something extremely formal."

"So sucks to be us?" The human nodded at the monster's response. She groaned at that.

"Well, at least you look good in that," Ralsei added. "I'll have to wear something weird so they don't recognize me." He huffed at the thought. Kris was a tiny bit surprised that the two of them cared about what they wore so much. But then again, he understood not wanting to conform to the whims of someone who planned to kill one of their own. And, he didn't want to wear something lame either. The human shook his head and sighed.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. But, I think he'd take offense of we just wore some standard outfits, so let's add our touch to 'em." He said with a small smile that Ralsei replicated. Susie scratched the back of her head.

"Just don't make the clothes weird, 'kay?"

* * *

The first set of clothes was made weird purely to mess with Susie. Susie then, after knocking Kris upside the head, made Ralsei make their outfits, though he revealed that if his imagination were left to dictate the design with no other limitation... well, the clothes made them feel a bit _too_ fancy, let's just say. So in the end, Kris ended up making the clothes anyway, much to Susie's irking.

But they were all a little annoyed that when they entered the Throne Room where the party was held, everyone was wearing the same things they wore all the time. When he Susie mentioned this, the nearest Rudinn mentioned that they lived in the castle and the Diamond King just assumed that it was their most formal attire, as to please him. So there the Fun Gang stood, dressed in their Sunday Best while everyone else was in the Tuesday Pretty Good.

Ironically, the party was behind schedule and Ralsei's 'big reveal' as the banners put it, was delayed by another 30 minutes. The Gang had decided to split up and enjoy the party. It was terrible.

The decorations were plain, the music was nonexistent at best, and the atmosphere made it severely clear that attendance was mandatory. Hell, Clover's party had been better put together, and she had 3 separate personalities to appease at the same time. Susie and Kris ended up leaning against the wall next to the punch bowl, while Ralsei made sure to greet every person at the party like the polite prince he was. Even though it was celebrating his death, but details.

"This party blows," Susie said for the third time the last minute. She was tapping her boot that she refused to change out of against the black stone floor, which matched the black skull clusters Kris added to her pale yellow dress. Kris enjoyed the makeshift design he'd come up with and looked down at his tuxedo with mild disappointment. Standard black coat, with a blue shirt underneath and a pink and black striped tie. He was feeling a little nostalgic, so he went for his classic colors. It was also a good sign that his old color scheme brought memories he wanted to remember. It showed he was getting better and moving past it all. Or he was repressing those memories. Win-win either way.

"You're telling me," Kris responded autonomously, then actually noticed the punch bowl they'd been standing next to. Susie followed his eyes and went over to get a drink.

The punch, like everything the Darkworld that wasn't black, was glowing, this time in neon yellow. The cups were, you guessed it, black and plastic, as well as the ladle. She poured some in her cup, then chugged it- and spit it out to the side Kris wasn't standing near, thankfully.

"Damn, this drink is awful!" She swore, wiping her mouth against the back of her scaled hand. Kris rolled his eyes behind his bangs. Even if you put Susie in a fancy dress, you could never get her to be fancy. Kris decided to ask her a question before she did ate all the food in the party out of spite.

"Why didn't you magic us up some clothes too?" Kris asked. "We both know you'd never give up the chance to dress us up in something embarrassing."

She snorted at that. "Yeah, I wouldn't. But magic makes me feel _super_ tired. Like doing laps in gym after skipping lunch tired." Kris thought it made sense. Magic died out on the Surface centuries ago, so maybe monsters had lost their touch at magic over the years. Kris was about to mention this when he caught Susie looking at the punch bowl like it had just backhanded her mother. He rolled his eyes under his long hair.

"C'mon, it can't be that bad." He said evenly, walking over to get his cup. When the liquid pressed against his tongue, his body immediately reached and spit it back into his cup.

"Why is it so watered down?!" With such an extreme color, you'd expect the taste to be just as extreme, but instead, it tasted like a gallon of water with some grapes squished into it. He placed the cup back onto the table, forsaking it to be the 'Forgotten Drink' that one person always leaves behind at events.

"See?" She said triumphantly, then she remembered she was right about a bad thing and sighed. "This party blows," Susie said matter-of-factly, crossing her arms and nodding like the same line she'd repeated for the greater part of 20 minutes was some piece of forgotten wisdom. Kris scoffed.

"You're telling me," the human shook his head at his scaled companion.

Then, something interesting happened for a change. The DK, in all his egotistical glory, stood up from the throne he'd been sitting in since the party started. He put his six hands together and looked around with an expecting smile. Someone got the hint and began clapping for him, and soon every employee the Darkner had begun clapping for him, though it was the most half-hearted applause Kris had ever heard. Then again, the Rudinn's only have one hand peer person so they may be trying their best. He let the applause seep through the air as his ego grew to a size comparable only in powers of ten. When he finally gave his triple clap, every immediately stopped clapping.

"Yes yes, my wonderful subjects, I am glad you all can applaud me as I so rightfully deserve." God Kris wanted to shove his fist so far into the Darkner's face that everyone could see his fist clearly through the other side.

"And I am glad you all have gathered to celebrate the traitor's Big Reveal, and I am glad to be able to give a little speech about that mutineer before he arrives." Kris' eyes widened, and he could see the same panic on Susie's face. They needed to find Ralsei. Whatever the DK was going to say about him was probably not the best for him to hear. Yet they couldn't see him through the crowd of Darkners that were forcibly gathered. And he couldn't just sprint through the crowd without raising suspicion. Kris turned back to his friend, and they locked eyes and nodded. They then went their separate ways to sift through the crowd and either block out his words or comfort him.

"As all my subjects know, there is only supposed to be one Dark Fountain." Kris desperately wanted to tune everything about tonight out while he searched through the crowds for the exact opposite of Ralsei. He'd set him up in the same outfit he usually wore except without his hat and inversions to his regular clothing palette. Aka, Ralsei was wearing dark red and had his true white fur exposed, making him his evil twin.

"But the Fountain in this very castle is new, given to your previous ruler, who failed to guard it." Kris felt his great disguise was biting him in the ass, as he had to look for Not-Ralsei. But he'd practically given up on trying not to draw suspicion, whispering Ralsei's name loudly.

"Though, our original Fountain and its guardians met a similar fate." Oh no. Questions filled Kris' mind as he began to search more desperately. Were Ralsei's parents killed? What about the rest of their subjects? What had killed them? Why was Ralsei left behind when someone _knew_ he was there?

Did Ralsei know all this?

As the thought crossed his mind he found the Darkner, staring and trembling at the green Darkner's words. That was all he needed to disprove his assumption.

He pushed through the Hathys that surrounded his friend, most likely trying to sympathize with him, and was about to grab him when he heard his mutterings.

"You can do this, you can be strong." The words came from his muzzle, and something Kris had never felt shone in his heart. Doubt.

'_Should I? Should I hold him and coddle him?'_ He wanted to smother him and hold him tight until all his fears melted away. He'd thought he only wanted to comfort him, and it was the best thing he could do. But, hearing Ralsei's doubt changed something and realized he'd been smothering him. Smothering them both, fighting for them, teaching them, comforting them, appeasing them. When was the last time he'd let them think or feel for themselves, and not forced his views and choices onto them? He was on a journey across time and space to better himself, and yet he was actively hampering his friend's growth.

What kind of friend does that? A shitty one.

Then, once more, a choice appeared before him. Comfort him, or do not?

His mind flashed to his half-brother. He'd taken no hesitation to hold him, to forgive him. He'd needed him. But was this any different? Of course. He wasn't Ralsei, and Ralsei wasn't him. Did he need him to comfort him and try to protect him for the truth like the hero Kris wanted to be for them both, or did Ralsei need him to be there for him, to support him?

A single breath left the human's blue lips before he made his decision. He simply put his hand on the Darkner's should, and felt his heartache as Ralsei looked at him questioningly. He stood by his choice, and simply nodded to his friend. Ralsei stood up a little straighter under Kris' grasp of him.

"In the end, the former jester's actions left him alone, and the King's orders not to enter the grounds of the Dark Fountain left him abandoned." Kris' hand tightened its grip on Ralsei's red sleeve, as he found more reasons to dislike the dethroned King. And he faintly recalled Ralsei's discomfort when they had first met Jevil. He also had something solid to hate the Jevil for. Not that he needed them, but they were good for future reference. His red eyes searched to meet the Darkner's, and he found a dark green that hid sadness. But his gaze was strong, and Kris knew he'd made the right choice to be there with him. To finally let him grown, and... blossom.

"Though, I am sad to say that the child of this story has become a traitor who defies his king." Kris couldn't help but chuckle at that, and his friend laughed lightly at his reaction. The moment was over, as the DK began hyping up the story's ending.

"Now, the moment we've all been waiting for, guards, bring me our guest!" He pointed at his necklace of Rudinns who all looked at each other, confused.

"Uh, boss? We haven't found the prisoner yet." A Rudinn Ranger said casually.

"...What?" The DK said, to which all the serpentine Darkners shrugged. "We tried to tell you hours ago, but you were too busy making us feed you our paychecks to listen." Kris could hear Susie's snickering from the other side of the room. He shook his head and told Ralsei to get ready for the Bigger Reveal.

The DK's face had now scrunched up in rage and embarrassment for both not having his prisoner and talking up said prisoner.

"WELL, THEN WHERE IS HE?!" He bellowed towards his apathetic employees who simply shrugged at him. That was their cue.

Kris then jumped onto the nearest table and grabbed the room's attention by clapping his hands so hard it sounded like a lightning strike.

"Hey! This has been a party I will..._ never _forget, so because of that, I'd like to give you a present." Confused eyes followed him as he waved Ralsei over, and helped him onto the table.

"Listen, I have no time for your games, now get off those tables!" He shouted at Kris, who only smiled at him while ignoring the sting of his palms.

"Now now, I've only just started talking." He shook his head condescendingly. Ralsei stood awkwardly in front of everyone's gaze, yet bowed despite this. When he stood back upright, Kris let his spell be undone, and Ralsei returned to his regular outfit. Ralsei's hat then returned from his inventory in a dark mist over his head and simply fell onto him.

"Found the prisoner." One of the Rudinns said proudly, to which the others all nodded and agreed. The DK didn't take the reveal in stride as the rest did, however. His eyes bugged out comically, and his jaw dropped, just not quite reaching the floor. Susie, wanting a better view, hopped onto the table alongside the others.

"Oh, don't you worry about prisoners, because I have a deal you just _can't _say no to!" He smirked, his love for tricks and ploys turning him into a conniving salesman.

"Y' see," Kris explained. "You could attempt to execute my friend here, which would cement you as a fool for all of eternity," The verbal punching bag inhaled to interrupt, but he talked past it. "Or you could receive the Diamond Kingdom in all of its entirety, along with any of your subjects who are willing to go along with you, so long as you return the throne to the rightful heir, give up in your attempts to execute Ralsei, and never return to this castle ever again." The indignation on the Darkner's face made Kris' smile broaden. He really was prideful.

"What if I don't take this _gift _of yours?" He said eventually with a sneer.

"You would be a fool to not take such a _non-violent_ gift from me," Kris said simply. "But, if you choose to do so, I'll be forced to resort to plan B." Kris' excellent poker face helped him hide the joy he felt while explaining. He expected the DK's pride to overtake his cowardice and pick B. And he was so excited to execute it.

The future would be set in stone with the Darkner's next sentence. The human could _feel_ his teammates' worries and anxiety washing over him. But he held his gaze with the soon-to-be-dethroned king. He was practically itching to force the king off that chair.

"Well, as you are not royalty, much less a member of the Kingdom Of Diamonds; Holders Of Unbreakable Truth, so I do not believe you would be able to come up with a single good plan, much less two." He sneered.

"So, I should take up my role as the last member of my line of royalty, and put your truth to the test. Guards, take them to the dungeon as forcefully as you can." With a lavy wave of his six appendages, a squadron of Darkners formed from all the participants who surrounded the table the Fun Gang had commandeered. Kris sighed and shook his head. Wow, was he predictable or what? Without a word, his team stood beside him, back to back to back.

"So, now will you tell us the plan?" Susie grumbled as she summoned her axe and glared the entire Jigsawry squadron into submission.

"Simple. We hold a coup." Kris explained as he jumped into the crowd of Darkners and intimidated them into accepting his 'mercy' with a crimson look at his drawn blade. They quickly ran away, stating something about not getting paid/fed enough for this.

"... A what?" Susie replied, putting a particularly aggressive Head Hathy into a chokehold with her axe's handle. Kris couldn't help but feel a bit of morbid pride at that.

"A coup is an act of replacing a government system or figure of power, usually through violence," Ralsei explained while pacifying the particularly tired ones in the crowd, who were dragged to the opposite side of the room by everyone else so everyone could complain about the Fun Gang, conscious or not. Kris nodded, and a familiar silence passed between the trio.

"... That isn't your whole plan, is it?" Ralsei asked the human and gave Kris the stink eye when he didn't respond.

"What? It worked last time, didn't it?" Kris muttered after giving sparing a couple of Darkners who weren't completely afraid of him yet but with actual ACTs this time.

"If you meant to brand Spearmint as a war criminal, then yes," Susie added unhelpfully.

"...I hate that the nicknames you give us are so good, Violet." Kris said, using all of his conversational skills to steer the conversation towards a less Kris-did-something-stupid direction. Though Ralsei's unimpressed gaze showed Kris that he still had a long way to go in the art of casual misdirection.

"Anyway," Kris hilt-bashed the skull of a Rudinn who decided to replace his easily dodged long-range magic with his easily dodged short-ranged attacks. "I kind of want today's mission to be over with, so can I get a Blue..." Kris could practically feel the smugness radiating off of Susie at the realization she can hurl him like a dodgeball again. Before he knew it, he was grabbed by his back, lifted over a certain purple dinosaur's head, and chucked while said dinosaur screamed "BOMBER!"

Really, in Kris' opinion, Blue Bomber wasn't her best name, but it was already used twice so it's there forever now.

As the living missile shot forward, he remembered a pretty interesting thing. Wasn't there a big three-headed Darkner who-

Right, Clover was a teenager by nature, so she probably dipped as soon as the party got boring. Which in this case meant immediately.

Kris then resumed his next attempt at regicide as he hurtled towards the DK shield first.

...Kris realized he does attempt regicide a fair bit.

Sadly, Kris only crashed his shield at the spot right next to the egotistical Darkner, when he'd wanted to turn him into a fine dark mist. He looked over to meet the eyes of the man he almost crushed like a ladybug. A small smirk appeared on Kris' face, that he quickly smothered before it could turn into his sadistic grin. But he saw the effects of the clanging of his murder attempt via shield rang out throughout the throne room, bringing a deafening silence. The same silence Kris' target had heard throughout his imprisonment.

Oddly, pity made its way into the human's heart. The Darkner before only sought power because his kingdom had been massacred and abandoned, while he had to become a prisoner of a mad king.

Then he remembered that he'd done the exact same thing to Ralsei, and the pity died right where it had sprouted. Right as he was about to make his final deal with the DK, the Angel felt something.

_Cold._ A sharp numbness that held onto his spine and chilled the very blood in his veins. The feeling started before everything went from hell and back.

The throne room door was slammed open and as the Diamond King was sitting forwards, he saw the being first. His eyes widened, and his white and green body _paled._ Kris didn't even know white could even _get _paler!

Kris turned around all the same, and many things happened in a moment.

First, Kris noticed the metallic being was hurtling towards him. Second, he raised his shield to meet the dull gleam of metal. And finally, he recognized the enemy.

The presence, the strength, and the fear they brought was the only introduction it needed, and the fearful silence was the theme it deserved.

It was The Knight.

And when he recognized the suit of armor and the dull sword, Kris was already sent crashing through the back of the throne as something that couldn't crack did, and he impacted against the stone wall of the room, and several things that could crack, did.

As his world blurred together and his sense were numbed by pain, a single melancholy thought pierced the pain.

_'Seems we weren't the only party crashers today...'_

* * *

**Well... I am really bad at scheduling and keeping promises, as you can tell. I've also become thoroughly ashamed of the beginning chapters of this story, so I will be rewriting that self-insert garbage and turning it into self-reflective recycling instead while I am working on the last main chapter for Chapter 2.**

**Anyways, thank you all for reading, be sure to leave reviews telling me I'm a garbage writer and why I should never pick up a pencil ever again.**

**Later.**


	24. Thank you

**Hey. I'm just here to tell y'all that I'm about halfway through revising some chapters. Some of the bold text, in the end, have messages you may or may not want to see, such as the eventuality of the original Fun Gang timeline's fate (Aka, the one where everyone but Susie dies.)**

**So yeah, you may want to reread if you want info such as that, but nothing with really have spoilers. I think. Idk it's like 3 am over I am running on empty.**

**Anyway, thank you, everyone, for continually reading my garbage writing, and I hope you don't develop standards until this ride is over.**

**See you next time.**


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